Trash to Treasure (Making Ornaments out of Metal Lids)

I have gotten into the habit of saving the lids from frozen juice containers and turning them into Christmas tree ornaments. If you want an inexpensive and easy little craft project (and you love Christmas ornaments as much as I do), here's all you need to do:

Take one clean lid. Cut a photo into a circle that will fit inside the lip of the lid (or in lieu of a photo, an illustration cut from a greeting card or any other little piece of artwork you'd like), then glue it onto the lid using a hot glue gun (for quick results) or Aileen's Tacky Glue (if you don't mind waiting for the glue to dry and/or have a tendency to burn yourself using a hot glue gun, like someone I know). For this ornament, I used an adorable picture of my son's dog Allie wearing reindeer antlers. Soon, I'll have photos of my soon-to-be-born twin grandchildren that I will use, but for now Allie will have to do. (If you want to see a close-up, click the photo twice to enlarge it--it's really very cute!)

To hide the edges of the photo, glue faux pearls or plastic beads (you can find them at any craft store) around the border to look like a wreath. Then make a ribbon bow and attach that. To make the hanger, hot glue a loop of ribbon onto the back, and voila!

I know it's only May, but I think any time is a good time to make a Christmas ornament. And even if you're not in the mood now, you can start saving the lids to use later on.