Handmade Christmas Ornament Ideas from Your "Little Monsters"

Now that we have kids, it's so much fun to give personalized gifts to some of our family members each year. This year, we have a couple fun, handmade Christmas ornament ideas that I'm excited to share with our parents and grandparents. And of course, we wanted to share them with you, too!

For as long as I can remember, my grandpa has loved the old song "Purple People Eater". If you haven't heard the lyrics, a portion of it goes "he was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater". I have memories of my grandpa singing this to me when I was little, and someone even requested it to be played at our wedding for him. My grandpa does NOT dance, but I dragged him out on the dance floor for that song and it's one of my favorite memories together.

Now that we have kids, he sings that same song to them, and my heart explodes a little. I thought it would be so fun to make him a handmade Christmas ornament of the flying purple people eater. And of course, we can't forget my amazingly sweet grandma who is always on top of things. Sometimes she's so prepared that it seems like there must be two of her. I thought she could use a little twin monster to go along with grandpa's ornament.

Handmade Christmas Ornament Ideas - Little Monsters

We started out following this recipe for salt dough ornaments. It's super easy but don't forget to use a straw and poke holes for ribbon-I almost forgot with these! We did my son's footprint and daughter's handprint for our little monster project.

We picked up a few supplies for this project, including acrylic paints, paint brushes, and silicone baking mats. I started by painting the purple people eater and giving him a curled horn and wings.

Our daughter chose the color for her great grandma's ornament, and we got to work painting that one as well. You could really go crazy making a bunch of little monsters if you have multiple kids. As it was, we had lots of fun designing our ornaments!

Little monsters require googly eyes, of course! I always have a bag of these on hand so we grabbed a couple and used tacky glue to attach them.

Lastly, we tied ribbons through the ornaments so they can hang on a tree. I can't wait to see my grandparents' faces when they open these monsters from THEIR 'little monsters' on Christmas!

If you're looking for other salt dough ornament ideas, you've come to the right place!

Check out our other Salt Dough Ornaments: