3-D Christmas Nativity Scene Ornaments Tutorial

 

Make something special for the holidays!  Try these 3-D Christmas Scene Ornaments.

 

They're a cute way to add the real spirit of Christmas to the tree and share the message of the season that young and old alike can enjoy:

 

These can be used in many more ways than as ornaments too....DIY snow globes, on wreathes, table top decorations and anywhere else that needs a little seasonal sprucing.  The built-in backgrounds and 3-dimensional effect make them really charming:

- Christmas button sets
- 1/2 in or 5/8 in wide Christmas ribbon
- Cardstock, sandpaper and/or craft foam sheets
- Craft wood circles
- Foam floor mat (or 1/2inch thick foam/wood/cardboard)
- Hot glue gun
- Fishing line/filament thread

 

 

We started with tracing the wooden circles onto the paper or foam that would make up the bases.  We also used some flocked paper that was sand colored:

Cut 3 of the wood circles to make a straight end (about 1/3 off a circle).  Trace that shape onto the paper or foam that will be the background.  Then hot glue the colored pieces onto the wood:


Run a line of hot glue under the flat end of the cut wood and attach it to the base circle like this:



Now for the decorating!  To do the Three Kings theme, use some foam cut stickers (or sheets of craft foam to hand-cut or use a cutting machine).  We used some palm trees as-is and trimmed down a dinosaur to make a sand dune: 

 

Attach those onto the background:

For the Good Shepherds, we cut a few pieces of flocked card stock, one for the backdrop and another smaller one that we folded under to add dimension.


Hot glue those into place and added the Christmas star and angel to the background:


For the Nativity theme, we cut some burlap into a stable shape, cut up a yellow grass piece of foam and grabbed to star shaped beads to layer into a star with glue:

Then add the button figures with more hot glue:


To build up the bottoms for trimming with 5/8in ribbon, we cut up an old foam floor mat to make a circular base for each ornament.  This works ideally, but thick cardboard or layers of thinner foam would work too since it all gets covered.


Add a bunch of hot glue to attach them to the wood bottoms:


Once cool, it's time to trim them with ribbon!

 

Cut 7 inch long pieces of ribbon and heat sealed the ends with a lighter:

Center the text on the front of each ornament, then attach the ribbon with line of glue around the foam base.


Lastly, cut a piece of filament thread, made a loop and put a dab of glue over the ends on the back of the ornaments.



Then they're ready to hang on the tree!