There is no end to the crap the school sends home for my kids to buy or sell. Today, each of the three elementary kids came home with an ornament that looked vaguely familiar. It consisted of their school picture on strips of paper held together with a tack. And they cost $10 each.  That, my friends, is highway robbery.

A few years ago, the kids and I made ornaments out of photos. Remember? I ordered some prints from Wal-Mart, but they were out of the paper fasteners. We bought a few pipe cleaners instead with a bag of jingle bells to hold the ends. For less than five dollars, we spent a fun hour together and ended up with a half dozen ornaments.

These may not be as ‘perfect’ as the ones from the school, but I guarantee that they will hold more memories for the kids in years to come!

Step One: Cut photo into strips. The kids wanted to have their picture on each one, so I created a photo online using a random background image and pasting their pictures on top of it. If you want to make a smaller ball inside of a larger one, cut the smaller ball’s strips shorter. Narrower strips work best. We cut each photo into four equal parts and it was way too wide (learn from my mistakes).

Step Two: Using a hole punch, create a hole in each side of the strips. Hook them together. The original instructions (EASIER) calls for a brad or tack. We used pipe cleaners and bells. I guess you could thread it with fishing line or yarn or staple it. Butterfly got a little creative with her design… Whatever gets the job done!

Step Three: Fan out. Move the parts around until the strips resemble a ball. As you can see, the large pieces didn’t work well. Lesson learned! We’ll try some more tomorrow.

If you want to get more ideas, check out our original project or see the instructions at photojojo.com!

UPDATE: Photojojo posted a new DIY ornament, origami style!