3-D Christmas Nativity Scene Ornaments Tutorial

Today I'm sharing how to make something special for the holidays: 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:

They also make a fun handmade gift too:

I saw the idea of a vignette like this using some of these Christmas Nativity themed buttons in a promo photo from the button company that makes them.  There was no how-to, so I decided to make up my own.

I built on the general concept with a larger base and the addition of these new Christmas message ribbons I had created specially for my shop, Heavenly Fabric Shop, this holiday season:

How To Make 3-D Christmas Nativity Ornaments

Materials:

- Christmas button sets
- Christmas satin 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

I started with tracing the wooden circles onto the paper or foam that would make up the bases.  I did 3 since I was doing 3 ornaments.  I used some flocked paper that was sand colored:

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

I ran 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, I had a few foam craft stickers from a dinosaur set of my kids that worked perfectly (you could also hand-cut or use a cutting machine to make some).  I used the palm trees as-is and trimmed down a dinosaur to make a sand dune: 

I then attached those onto the background:

I ran a line of hot glue under each button figure and staggered them for a 3-d effect:

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

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

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

I added the button figures with more hot glue:

To build up the bottoms for trimming with my 5/8in ribbon, I 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.

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

Once cool, it was time to trim them with ribbon!

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

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

Last, I 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 were ready to hang on the tree!

I really love how these turned out and having a full set of them as an "in-the-tree Nativity" is so nice too.  The kids have fun looking at them and it's been a fun DIY project for Christmas this year:)