DIY Personalized Ceramic Tile Christmas Ornaments

I love making Christmas ornaments, it’s one of our family traditions!  Every year, I try to come up with something new to add to the tree (one can only have so many snowman ornaments) !  This year I made our ornaments from inexpensive floor tiles and personalized them with vinyl.

Use any Cricut cutting machine and Cricut premium permanent vinyl to personalize these ornaments. I love the way they turned out!  Let me show you how to make these ornaments, and share some tricks I learned on how to make sure everything lines up straight.

I am a regular at our local hardware store. I am always looking for craft supplies in unexpected places and the hardware store is chock full of crafting supplies, if you learn to look at regular building supplies creatively. 

On this trip, I came across some awesome tiles. They came on a sheet and are supposed to be used on floors or maybe even a kitchen back splash… but I thought they looked like Christmas ornaments. Can you see it too?

The tiles peel right off the backing sheet.

Once you have peeled the tiles off the backing sheet, you will have a pile of ornaments just ready for decorating! For these ornaments, I made a template by tracing a tile on sturdy cardstock and cutting it out. You will want to keep the negative of your ornament for your template (the cardstock, not the ornament shape).

For these ornaments, I used two colors of vinyl. I found that putting the lighter of the two colors in the background looked better than putting the darker color in the back.

The first layer of vinyl that goes down is the large initial. I placed this on the tile by hand. I just eyeballed it and it worked out just fine.

Now that I have the background letter on, I can add the second layer in a darker color that has the name and the date. For this layer, I used KG Eyes Wide Open for the font, and made sure to weld the letters together before I cut the vinyl. (If you need a refresher on welding, check out How to Weld Text and Images in Cricut's Design Space.

After cutting the name layer, I weeded (removed) any extra vinyl that I did not want on my ornament.  A hook tool was ideal for this task.

Once I weeded the name, I used transfer tape to take the vinyl off the backing sheet and move it to my ornament. I cut a square of transfer paper that was big enough to cover my design. To help make transferring easier, I burnished (rubbed) the transfer paper onto the vinyl; this helped the vinyl come off the backing sheet and stick to the transfer paper.

To remove the backing sheet from the vinyl, I turned the design over so the backing sheet was facing up. Next, I bent the corner of the transfer paper over on itself and worked it off backwards. This allowed me to push the vinyl down as I went. The desired end result is the vinyl sticking to the transfer paper and coming off the backing sheet.

Tip: The backing sheet from the vinyl can be recycled and you can use transfer paper more than once, so don’t toss it after the first use.

Once I had the vinyl on the transfer paper, I used the the template I talked about making earlier. I found that the template made lining everything up so much easier! I laid the template over the transfer paper and lined up my design like so.

Now I could tell that my design was going to end up right where I wanted it on my ornament. Next I lined the tile up with the template. In this case, I lined the bottom of the ornament up with the template before pressing my tile to the transfer paper. After I stuck  the tile to the transfer paper, I removed the template.

Next I flipped my tile and transfer paper over and burnished the vinyl onto the tile. Then I removed the transfer paper.

Tip: When removing the transfer paper, fold it over on itself and peel backwards.

Once you have removed the transfer paper, heat the design with an embossing gun or a blow dryer. This will help the vinyl stick to the tile better.  

Tip: Do not overheat, vinyl can (and will) melt if overheated. You may see bubbles, but they’ll work themselves out over time.

To add a hanger to the ornament, I cut a length of ribbon, folded it in half and tied a knot.

I added a dot of hot glue to the back of the tile and glued the ribbon on. I used the tweezers from a set of Hot Glue Gun Helpers to avoid burning my fingers! These tweezers are coated with silicone so hot glue doesn’t stick (and my fingers stayed safe too!).

I left the back of my ornament plain and “unfinished.”  Some of your tile ornaments may be rough or have adhesive stuck to the back and you might want to cover the back. Here are 21 ideas to cover ugly tile backs to make cute ornaments. 

1. Grout
2. Plaster of Paris
3. Felt
4. Yarn
5. Washi Tape
6. Colorful Duct Tape
7. Glitter
8. Scrapbook Paper
9. Fabric
10. Seed Beads
11. Paint
12. Pieces of Broken CDs
13. Paper Mache
14. Mirror
15. Cork
16. Puffy Paint
17. Nail Polish
18. Melted Crayons or Wax
19. Old Christmas Cards
20. Craft Foam
21. Another Tile

I hope you feel inspired!  Get crafting! - Kala