1st Christmas Ornament & A Daycare Craft

I've been searching for a baby's 1st Christmas ornament and I have yet to find one that is a) my style or b) in my price range (read very inexpensive). We don't have a tree, but I'm hoping for one in the future. So when I saw this silhouette ornament on Young House Love I thought it was perfect. And as an added bonus I can do one each year as he grows. Also, I was looking for a good Christmas craft for cousin Gracie to give to her parents.

One day during Sawyer's morning nap G painted the ornaments while I cut out the silhouettes. Once the paint was dry I mod podged them onto the ornament. Then I wrote their name and year on the back of the ornament. The example I saw used a ceramic ornament, but I found a wooden circle for $.20 at the craft store and then I had the hubs drill a hole in the wood. This was a simple project. It does take some time during paint coats (2-3 coats of paint and 2-3 coats of mod-podge), but it's a very simple project.

And a tip for making silhouettes. I do not have fancy photoshop or photo editing software, so I found a tutorial for making silhouettes on picnik. Take a profile picture of the subjects head. One thing that will help immensely is taking the picture with a light source behind the subject (i.e. take a picture in front of a window). This will make the subject darker and the background whiter. Upload the picture into Picnik. Click on the Create tab, Effects, Open Sandbox effects, Adjustable Threshold. Then adjust the black and white threshold to make the desired contrast of the basic outline. Press Apply. Click on Doodle, in the miscellaneous effects. Click black and/or white and then paint over the stray pixels you don't want. Print and cut. Here's the video tutorial I used.

This is the original profile picture I used of Sawyer

Sentimental, easy, and inexpensive...now that's my kind of craft!