My name is Chad Boender, and I am a kindergarten teacher and author of a blog called Male Kindergarten Teacher. Every year I try to come up with a cost-effective, fun, and creative parent gift for my students to make. I try to make something that parents will cherish for a lifetime and students will look back on each year to remember the great times they had in school.

Today, I am excited to share how I created this fun and easy Christmas ornament with Silhouette Studio® and a Silhouette machine. Let’s grab our supplies and get started!

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Set Up The Design

  1. Select the Page Setup panel (this icon can be found on the toolbar on the right-hand side of your page) and adjust your page to 4 inches x 4 inches. The page size can be adjusted based on the size of your canvas.
  2. Open Design #1516 (tree image) in Silhouette Studio® by locating it your library.
  3. Arrange the design in the center of the 4 x 4 inch page.

Step Two: Cut The Design

  1. Place a 4 inch x 4 inch piece of light green vinyl onto your cutting mat.
  2. Load the cutting mat into your machine.
  3. In Silhouette Studio®, select the Send tab in the top right-hand corner. Select the “Vinyl, Matte’” cut setting, and click Send. (Remember that if you don’t have an Autoblade, you will need to adjust your blade depth manually.)
  4. Your machine will cut out your design onto your vinyl.
  5. Once your machine has cut out your design, remove the pieces from your cutting mat.
  6. Weed away unnecessary parts of the design.
  7. Place the Transfer Tape over your design to help move your design over to the canvas.
  8. Slowly peel away the white backing from the vinyl.
  9. Align your design on your 4 x 4 in. canvas. Once you have it in the position you would like, rub the vinyl on the canvas. Use your scraper tool to help adhere the vinyl.
  10. Slowly peel away the transfer tape to reveal your finished design.

Step Three: Assemble Your DIY Ornament Craft

  1. Using a variety of colors of acrylic paint, have your students use their fingers to decorate their tree to their liking.
  2. Add a gold foil star to the top of the tree. Using red, white, and green twine, hot glue the ends of the twine to the back of your canvas. 
  3. Personalize your canvas with a Sharpie marker by adding the year or ‘Merry Christmas’ to the front of your canvas.

 

What kind of classroom crafts, bulletin boards, or activities would you like to see?

This blog post was originally posted on the Male Kindergarten Teacher blog. It has been edited and republished with permission from the author.