How To Make A Cotton Reel Map Christmas Ornament

Every festive season I dig the box of old favourite Christmas ornaments to decorate the tree with. I add a couple of new handmade ones to the collection each year, including these cotton reel map Christmas ornaments.

Most of the ornaments on our tree are handmade or have some personal significance. There are the ones that the kids made at school and ones that we have collected from holidays.

Every year when I dress the Christmas tree with this mismatch of ornaments it tells a story.

Ornaments picked up on trips abroad trigger memories of those wonderful vacations. Handmade ornaments the kids have made envoke happy memories of Christmas’s past.

Map Christmas Ornaments

The map Christmas ornaments will join this box of special ornaments, especially as I have used maps of areas memorable to us. If you use maps of places that have a personal connection then these ornaments would make a special gift too.

I also upcycled old wooden cotton thread spools and buttons to make the map ornaments. Along with the old road maps used, this just added to the vintage feel to these Christmas ornaments.

I find old road maps are great for crafting with at Christmas as often they are printed in festive colours. Many of the vintage road maps I have in my stash are printed on white paper with parks and countryside marked out in green and roads in red.

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What You Need

• Maps – I used old road maps. However, there are lots of maps you can download online for free and use. This is handy if you are looking for a map of a particular city or country. There are lots of vintage maps here to download for free.
• Wooden cotton reels
• An assortment of buttons in red and green
• Thin beading craft wire
• Red embroidery thread
• Paper beads or beads from an old necklace. Mini craft bells.
• Glue

How To Make A Map Christmas Ornament

1. First, decide on what map you are going to use. You might want to use a map of a favourite holiday desitination, or where you live or where you met your partner. If you can’t decide you can always make more than one map ornament.

2. Measure the circumference and height of the cotton reel spool. Cut out a strip of the map using these measurements. Wrap the map around the center of the spool and glue it in place.

3. Next, raid your sewing stash for some old buttons in Christmas colours of green or red.

4. Using jewelry wire thread a few buttons in descending sizes. Then add the map Christmas ornament spool and then thread some more buttons. I also threaded a paper bead.

Make sure you have the map spool the right way up when you thread it. I forgot to do this the first time around and I had to remake the ornament.

5. Finish off the map Christmas ornament by adding some red embroidery thread to hang it from. When I was putting the buttons away in my craft cupboard I came across a jar of mini craft bells. I decided to add one to each ornament.

I couldn’t decide on just one special place for my map Christmas ornament so I ended up making three of them.

As these map Christmas ornaments are made from old sewing notions they would also make a fun gift for a seamstress.

Cotton reels and buttons remind me of Christmas. My grandmother used to keep her buttons and cotton reels in a large Christmas Quality Street tin. Oh, the disappointment of opening the tin expecting a toffee only to find sewing stuff!

If you like these map Christmas ornaments then you should check out some of my other upcycled Christmas ornaments like these cute wine cork Christmas characters.

• Wooden Thread Spool Ornament
• Repurposed Map Decorations
• Repurposed Wood Map Ornaments
• Glamorous Oyster Shell Ornament
• Paper Rosettes From Old Maps

You will find many more clever upcycling ideas like this one here.

For more Christmas ornament crafts visit allfreeholidaycrafts.