It’s part two of my plan to create dark themed DIY Christmas Ornaments. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is incredibly difficult to find Christmas decor with a decidedly wicked twist. You can barely find simple black ornaments in stores these days, let alone gothic or Halloween themed ornaments. I’ve taken matters into my own hands yet again, and this week created some DIY Edgar Allan Poe Christmas Ornaments… to add some dark flavor to my Christmas tree!
I’ve always thought there was something incredibly striking about an all black & white Christmas tree. I kept that in mind when working on this project. I found this box of white pearl ornaments, and created each image from solid black vinyl. You could, of course, make these in any colors you choose…. any color ornament, with any color craft vinyl would work.
I chose Edgar Allan Poe as the theme for my ornaments… C’mon – given the name of this blog it should be surprising that I don’t do Poe crafts more often! Note to self – create more Poe crafts! I selected a handful of images and quotes related to Poe, but you could really use anything you’d like. When selecting images, please keep in mind the size of your ornaments, and remember that small font or small details can be extremely difficult for the cricut machine to cut out. Also keep in mind that these ornaments are round, and therefore some images may not lay perfectly flat on a rounded surface.
Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this project:
- White Ball Ornaments
- Cricut Machine
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
- Cricut Tools
and Cutting Mat
- Black Craft Vinyl
- Transfer Tape
- Black Velvet Ribbon
(I used the original Cricut Explore, but there are new & improved versions out since I purchased mine years ago)
and 
1. Select and save quotes and/or images you want to use on your ornaments. Choose images with bold, single color graphics.
2. Open Cricut Design Space
3. Type the quotes you have selected, and choose a font. Choose a font without too many details, and I also suggest changing the font to BOLD …. this will help when it comes to cutting
4. Import your images
5. Select Image Type: Simple Image and Continue
6. The Select and Erase page gives you an opportunity to clean up your image, so not to worry if the image you saved has extra lines or characters.. Erase all of that here and continue.
7. Save as a Cut Image
8. Upload the image to your project
9. Resize your quotes and images to fit your ornament
10. Send your image to cut. Design Space will walk you thru each step as soon as you click Go
11. Separate the cut image from the vinyl
12. Use Transfer Tape to adhere the image to the ornament. There are easy to follow instructions that come with the transfer tape for attaching the vinyl to it….. Be VERY careful when placing the image… the transfer tape and the vinyl letters work extremely well, and there is very little room to correct mistakes!!
13. Cut a length of black velvet ribbon and tie to the ornament as a hanger.
So simple! Hang on your tree and enjoy!
Truth be told… I had other ornament DIYs planned for this week, but we had a huge and unexpected snowstorm last week. Consequently, mail has been severely delayed, and some of the supplies I ordered never made it to me. Since we are now only 10 days away from Christmas… wow – how did that happen?!?…. my mission to make dark themed Christmas ornaments must come to an early close, as I imagine most of you already have your trees up and decorated by now. You may have to wait until next year for all of my Christmas ornament ideas… but the Baroque Vintage Insect Ornaments and the Poe Ball Ornaments are certainly a great start to a beautiful tree!
How’s the shopping coming? There’s still time to order a few last little things. This guide to Stocking Stuffers for the Darkling in your life will help! And don’t forget to snag that Ugly Christmas Sweater before the big day… plenty to choose from with a dark twist!
Are you an Edgar Allan Poe fan like me? Then you need this Annabel Lee Chalkboard Art in your life!
Gorge! Quelle surprise, I bought some plain white baubles to Cricut as well! But my inspiration ran dry, so I’ve put them away for next year. Perhaps we should compare notes in November! 😂
Same here! I have a stack of ornaments and supplies that I never got around to…. It’s a date in November!! 🙂