Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read
How to Make a Varsity Letter Ornament in 10 Minutes
Maybe it’s the former cheerleader in me, but I love a big varsity letter. My very first high school jacket had BIG letters on it and every time I see varsity style letters, it brings my mind back to my fun days of cheering on my friends during games and tumbling. When I saw some pearl and rhinestone varsity letters recently, I knew exactly what to make with them. Read on to learn how to make a varsity letter ornament in 10 minutes.
This DIY letter ornament makes a cute gift
Making ornaments and other craft items for friends and family members during the Christmas holiday season is something I’ve done since I can remember. I didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I would usually craft something to give. From bottlecaps covered in felt and sewn together to form a Christmas tree trivet to potpourri sachets, I made many useful crafts and gave them as gifts.
You can make these DIY ornaments in many colors
I also made buck eye candy (it’s a delicious combination of peanut butter and chocolate) and people requested them every year. Family members would devour their personal packages of the sweet treat before even leaving our home! Grab a similar recipe to the one I made on the Martha Stewart website here.
Making holiday crafts is almost a tradition in my life and others too. Writer Morgan Durick wrote an article about why making a new ornament every year is her favorite Christmas tradition and you can read it here on Southern Living’s website.
An easy DIY Varsity letter ornament
These DIY varsity letter ornaments come together in 10 minutes or less, but if you don’t have time to create ornaments, here’s a list of some we LOVE at Amazon and Walmart.
Mini Amazon Packages Funny Ornament (Amazon)
Baby Handprint Ornament Kit (Amazon)
Hallmark Cousin Eddie Ornament (Walmart)
Hallmark Nintendo Super Mario (Walmart)
Dumpster Fire Hallmark “Everything’s Fine” Ornament (Walmart)
A MICKEY inspired letter ornament
There is also an abundance of DIY ornaments on my website including my bling ornaments. See my “car craft” bridal inspired DIY bling ornament in my 1-minute video below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
DISCOUNT CODE ALERT!
Temu also has many cute ornaments and if you shop Temu and are a new app user, you can use my discount code afe55197 to get 30% off or use my link here. I actually bought most of my supplies for these ornaments on Temu. Other items I bought at Amazon or Walmart and included links below. This varsity letter ornament is a SUPER EASY and totally giftable gift and here’s how to do it.
Supplies you need:
Varsity Letters (I got mine on Temu, 26 for around $7, and they were 1.77” x 1.33”, but Amazon has similar ones and Walmart does too)
Shatterproof Fillable ornaments (I bought my 2.36” set of 15 on Amazon for less than $10, but Temu and Walmart has them too)
Tinsel/Icicle strands (I bought silver from Amazon, but Temu has them and Walmart does too)
Optional: Ribbon to make bows or 3 inch-ish pre-made bows
See me make this craft in my 1-minute video below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:
How to:
My supplies for the DIY Varsity letter ornament
I first heated up my glue gun and set out my supplies.
Filling the ornaments with tinsel
I then cut a handful of tinsel into smaller strands and simply stuffed them into an ornament. The ornament tops should pop on and off easily.
All 6 ornaments are filled
I repeated this with 6 of my ornaments as I created them with the name “MICKEY” as the varsity letters reminded me of the original song “Hey Mickey” by Toni Basil. It was a cheerleader style music video, so the letters seemed to go well with the song. You can, of course make them with letters to represent the person’s name you are perhaps gifting this to.
Hot gluing on the varsity letters
My letters had sticky backs (you can peel off the backing) but I did not feel they would stay stuck on the ornaments for long due to their curve. If you have a flatter fillable ornament, the sticky letter may stay on, but I heated up my glue gun to a high temperature setting and glued them to the ornaments to make them more permanent.
Tying the bows for the DIY ornaments
I then tied six 3-inch bows using some polka dotted grosgrain ribbon. You can also buy premade bows. I hot glued them onto the upper top section of the ornament, above the varsity letter.
The finished varsity letter ornament
Then you can hang them on the tree or wrap them up to gift to a loved one. I sometimes will use an acrylic paint pen or permanent marker to put the date on the ornament somewhere so I remember when I made them. I also like to add my initials.
The completed varsity letter ornament sparkles!
There are SO MANY different varieties of this craft…you can use iridescent tinsel and colorful letters too! See what you can come up with!
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Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.