This year, I thought I'd make an ornament from recycled materials I had an abundance of.

So I had:

juice can lids
straws
old Christmas cards
paper ream banding ribbons
burnt out Christmas light bulbs
little bits of ribbon

It was great for a Christmas card / small gift for giving out to people. I hope they liked them.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials: This Is Pretty Flexible - Substitute for What You Have

I used:

Glue guns - I used both Hi-Temperature (uses the fat glue sticks)

& Low-Temperature (uses the skinny glue sticks)

Hot glue sticks
Scissors
Compass (for drawing a circle)
Some thin cardboard (from a cereal or cracker box - look in your recycle bin)
Piece of rigid plastic (like from packaging - look in your recycle bin)
Ruler or Measuring tape
Old Christmas cards
1" Wide Ribbon - I used binding ribbon that packs of paper are wrapped in

(I rescued them from the office bins)

Narrow Ribbon or string
Plastic straws (these ones had been used & rinsed - I liked the red stripes)
Metal juice can lids
Pom pom / jingle bell / button / bead
Burnt out Mini lights
Red spray paint

Step 2: Making the Pointsettia/Flower: Making Cones

The ribbon was 1-1/8" (3cm) width, so to make a little cone-shape,

I wrapped it around my finger to find that each piece needed to be

this length. 2-1/2" (6cm)

Glue the little cone using a low temperature glue
Make 10 for each one.
Glue the cones together edge-to-edge

Step 3: Making the Picture Side:

To Do The Back:

Use a protractor to draw the right size circle that will fit into the recessed edge of the metal lid.
Once you out the right-sized paper circle, make 2 templates- (See Pic 2)

1 of thin cardboard (cereal/cracker box)

1 of thin,see-thru rigid plastic (cookie/toy package)

Use the see-thru template to find the "perfect image"

from your old Christmas cards (See pic 3 - you could use a photo too!)

Cut out your circle picture

Take a little remnant of ribbon (this will make a hinge) (See Pic 4)

and hot glue half of it to the top back of your circle picture

the other half, hot glue to the juice can lid (use hi-temp glue here)

Use the cardboard template, make 1 paper circle and glue to lid (use hi-temp glue here)

Tip: Write your special message on this before gluing it

Step 4: The Little Bulbs ... (Optional)

I had scrapped several mini light sets of Christmas lights because the
bulbs were all burnt out (just twist them, and they come right out)

Trim off any little wires with wire cutters.

Hot-glue them to an old piece of cardboard and spray-paint them red.

It took a couple of days to dry properly because it's winter here.

When dry, just pick em off (or run your hand across them & they all lay down- easy!)

and pick the glue blob off. You'll need 10 per ornament.

Step 5: Final Assembly

Here's a picture of each step:

Glue a ribbon loop on the juice can lid (use hi-temp hot glue here).
Glue on the ribbon flower from Step 2 (use hi-temp hot glue here).
Glue on a pom-pom / jingle bell/ button/ bead in middle.
Glue a little mini light inside each "cone" (use hi-temp hot glue here).
Cut a straw into small pieces that are long enough to cover each "cone's" seam (aprox 1" or 2.5cm).

-Glue them (use lo-temp hot glue here)

Trim each straw at an angle so they have a pointy tip.

Glue sequins around the top edge of each "cone" (use lo-temp hot glue here)

Tip: To pick up a sequin easily, use a pencil with a NEW eraser

- Moisten the eraser with a damp sponge...(or your tongue!)

- Put a blob of (low temp) glue on the "cone" first, then apply the sequin - easy!

Step 6: Some Different Variations...

My Grandmother passed away and I got her 70's costume jewelry nobody wanted, you'll see a lot of it here. My mum gave me her AWESOME box of harvested buttons. (everyone's mother had a jar of these - old buttons from clothes)

My friend Cindy wanted to make something from juice can lids, so I made her some ...and I kept going! These lid ornaments have been really fun!

I've made more than a hundred different variations of the juice can lid ornament / cards

They're all so different - See if you can identify the re-purposed materials in each one.