Ribbon Christmas Tree Ornament DIY

Homemade Christmas ornaments are great for making a homey and rustic Christmas setting. A quick and easy idea is to make a ribbon Christmas tree ornament. These are perfect for either hanging on the Christmas tree or from a hook on the wall. Because I make them with cinnamon sticks, they also give off a wonderful scent.

Ribbon Christmas Tree Ornament Tutorial

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The first thing that you will need to do is gather up a variety of ribbons or trims. You can get such a variety of looks with different colors, patterns, and textures.

Materials Needed

• about fifteen lengths of ribbon ranging in lengths of three to seven inches (if you have about three yards of ribbon total, you’ll have more than enough)
• a seven inch length of twine
• flat wooden bead
• tacky glue
• a long cinnamon stick or branch

Instructions

1. Start by folding your twine in half and inserting the ends into a flat wooden bead. Only leave about an 1/8th of an inch of the ends sticking out.

2. Glue the twine and bead to the top of your cinnamon stick with tacky glue. Since a cinnamon stick is rolled, there will be an opening for the 1/8 inch of twine to push through. The bottom of the bead and the top of the cinnamon stick will sit flush after gluing.

3. Once the glue is dry, you can begin tying the ribbons around the cinnamon stick. This is where it gets fun! You can create a colorful pattern, stick with one color, or go for a textured trim like boxwood leaves. The stiffer and wider that your trim pieces are, the better they will lay out straight. Narrow and light weight ribbons will flop around more. If you want to get soft ribbons to be more sturdy, you can coat them with Mod Podge. Once they are dry they will be more workable.

I adjusted my ribbon lengths as I went. Starting with the shortest ribbon at the top, I then tied what I thought would be close to the next size below it and trimmed off ends if necessary. You could also just tie all of your ribbons on at the widest length of about seven inches and then cut all of the ribbon at once with a sharp scissors. Just start at the bottom and angle your way to the top to get a nice Christmas tree shape.

When tying on the ribbons, first put a small amount of glue at the back of your stick. Then, wrap the ribbon around and tie in a double knot. This will hold the ribbon securely in place.

4. Keep tying on ribbons until you are left with about an inch and a half of cinnamon stick left. I started my trees with the cinnamon sticks the length that they were when I bought them, which was about a foot long. Once I had enough ribbons tied to form a nice tree, I simply broken the bottom off the stick. Cinnamon sticks are very easy to break by hand!

Ribbon Christmas Tree Ornament – Example One

For my first tree, I used just two different ribbons. I love buffalo check so wanted to incorporate that into my tree. Since it will probably be hanging from my tree, I went with red to contrast the green. These ribbons were more narrow and soft than other ribbons that I have worked with but keeping them a little shorter for a narrower tree helped.

Ribbon Christmas Tree Ornament – Example Two

For my next tree, I used a big variety of ribbons and trims. Not only did I use regular ribbon but I also used a wired boxwood leaf trim. It was a fun experiment and I really got the feel for how the different ribbons were to work with. The thicker linen ribbons were a little harder to tie but they stood out straighter and stiffer.

Because of the variety of ribbon used, there are more gaps between the ribbons. It actually reminds me of some of the real Christmas trees we’ve had. I could have gone in and tried to fill it in more with smaller ribbon but I decided to leave it in it’s imperfection.

This was how long the cinnamon stick was before I broke it off. I think I might actually like it better longer…..

Ribbon Christmas Tree Ornament – Example Three

The last Christmas tree ornament that I did was not with traditional ribbon at all. It was with wired boxwood leaves. However, I did buy it from the ribbon section of Hobby Lobby and it was in a spool. This was by far the easiest trim to use for this project. Because of the wire, it was super easy to shape the tree. Instead of tying this trim in a double not, I simply twisted it a couple of times in front. Because the tree is all green, I decided to add a red star button to the top with tacky glue.

Obviously, this one looks the most like a real tree. Because of that, I probably won’t hang it from the Christmas tree. It would just get lost. Instead, I’ll use this one to hang from an old window or other accessory.

I was definitely loving the smell of the cinnamon sticks while working on these trees. They are going to add such a nice Christmas scent to the house! Because of that, this is probably one of my favorite Christmas crafts.

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