Family Traditions – DIY Rustic Ornament

I’m so excited to be participating in the Ornament Exchange Blog Hop again this year. It’s a fun way to get to know another blogger and end up with a beautiful ornament for my tree. This year I was partnered with Chelsea from Making Manzanita. Today I’m sharing my Family Traditions DIY Rustic Ornament I made for Chelsea and her family!

Family Traditions

Family traditions at Christmas are some of the best. Every family probably has at least one special one.

Carrying those traditions on to our children is important. So is combining the traditions of both sides of the family!

Chelsea and her husband just finished an amazing bathroom renovation, I wish our master bathroom was large enough to incorporate some of her ideas.

They are also parents to two little ones. Obviously they have a lot going on! But Christmas is so much fun with kids, especially young ones.

I don’t even have one in elementary school anymore! But they are still fun this time of year. It means so much to me that my kids hold strong to our family’s Christmas traditions, even the ones they probably have outgrown.

So when I found one of Chelsea’s older posts (from 2016) about Christmas Traditions, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for her ornament.

Combining Traditions

Chelsea shared her family tradition of camping out in the living room on Christmas Eve… in a tent! I love this! Her husband, Logan’s family tradition was a birthday cake for Jesus.

My mom did that for some years. I’m guessing those were the years my sisters and I were a little to focused on the receiving instead of the giving… oops.

Given their love of rustic, industrial, and farmhouse I knew I wanted to incorporate some of that into the ornament. Chelsea and I obviously were meant to be friends with our style!

Rustic Look

To get started I had Tasha sketch up a very simple tent image, she’s really getting into her art classes. I’m enjoying having her work with me on projects.

The simple wood circle needed to be more than blonde wood. Alone it’s also too thin for my taste. Using a furniture touch-up marker from the Dollar Tree, I stained two wooden circles.

This is such a simple and low mess trick. Keep the marker in the direction of the wood grain. Every few passes, wipe the marker off with a paper towel.

Using a makeup wedge and some white paint, each circle was whitewashed, rubbing the excess off with the paper towel.

Personalized Family Tradition

Next, transfer the image onto one circle. Place the image over the circle and trace it firmly with a pencil.

Adding Happy Birthday Jesus, in honor of the birthday cake for Jesus, can also be traced. If the pencil didn’t leave enough of an indentation to follow, sketch directly onto the painted wood circle.

Use fine point Sharpie markers to bring the sketch to life. On the second wood circle, I continued the rustic look with a simple tree. And, I included one of our family traditions, to include the year on Christmas ornaments!

Finishing Touches

Using hot glue, attach a loop of twine to the backside of one wood circle.

Hot glue both sides together and trim the edge with more twine.

The ornament is reversible and looks nice from either side.

I’m so excited about the ornament. And, I really hope Chelsea likes it!

Want to remember this Family Traditions DIY Rustic Christmas Ornament? Pin to your favorite Pinterest board for later!