Easy DIY Picture Jar Lid Ornaments For Christmas

At Christmas, I love to have a tree full of exciting ornaments. I especially love handmade Christmas ornaments, like these DIY picture jar lid ornaments.

I’m always looking for new ways to craft with all the fantastic vintage images I curate on this site. Last year, I made some fun picture dictionary decoupage baubles. The year before, eyeglass ornaments. This year I’ve upcycled jar lids with pictures.

I’m particularly fond of all the vintage bird illustrations on Picture Box Blue. Cockatoos are my favourite bird, I used these images along with other tropical birds for this Christmas craft.

You can use any image you fancy for these picture jar lid ornaments. Flowers would work well-especially Christmas ones such as poinsettia or holly. Photos of children would look good too, and maps of meaningful places.

These picture ornaments are a fun quick and very affordable Christmas craft.

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What You Need To Make Jar Lid Ornaments

• Jar lids – I used the lids from standard sized jam jars. For bigger ornaments, you can use bigger jar lids, such as those off big pickle jars.
• Red spray paint
• Red and gold embroidery thread
• Small wooden beads
• Sharp awl for making a hole
• Clear lacquer liquid

The Pictures

As I’ve already mentioned, I used some vintage tropical bird pictures for my lid ornaments. I measured the diameter of my jar lids (6cm). Then using CANVA, I made frames the same size for my images.

You can download and use the same ones as me, or make your own.

There are some more vintage bird images printed in rounds with these wood slice Christmas ornaments.

How To Make The Lid Ornaments

Step 1: First, spray paint the jar lids red. Paint both sides of the lids. Remember to use spray paints in a well-ventilated area, preferably outside.

Step 2: Once the paint on the jar lids has dried, use an awl to punch two holes into the sides of the lid. The holes should be directly opposite each other.

Step 3: Make an embroidery thread tassel for the ornament. Do this by tying the top fold of the embroidery thread skein. Then cut it in half.

Next, wrap a thread of another colour around the top of the tassel. Finish off by threading in some wooden beads for decoration, just like in the picture below.

Step 4: Using the punched holes in the jar lid, add the tassel to one end and a hanging thread to the other.

Step 5: Next, decide on what picture you want to use for the jar lid ornament. Cut it out and stick it to the inside of the lid.

Step 6: Finally, to give the pictures a more glossy and slight 3D look I added a layer of liquid lacquer. This was simply just poured over the top of the picture and then left to dry clear.

So far, I’ve made three of these ornaments. I’m just waiting to finish a few more jars of jam and sauce so I can get some more lids to make more ornaments. I fancy having a Christmas tree full of these vintage picture ornaments. The next lot of jar lids will be sprayed green to add a bit of variety.

I could make Chinese New Year ornaments if I used the vintage traditional Chinese patterns on the site with the jar lids. I even have some tiger drawings on the site that would be appropriate. Next year is the year of the Tiger in the Chinese animal calendar.

You could use the jam jar lids to make personalized zodiac Christmas ornaments. Also, check out these air dry clay ornaments made with vintage patterns from the site.

If you are looking for more upcycled ideas you can find them here. And more decoupaging ideas here.