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If you’re looking for a fun homemade decoration for the holidays, these Mini Book Ornaments are the perfect craft!
If you find your tree is looking a little bare, or you want to add something handmade and unique to spruce it up, this mini book ornaments DIY craft is the solution.
Easy to make with adorable results, you’ll love getting the whole family together to make these fun Christmas trinkets. They make a great Christmas ornament gift for the book lover in your life too!
With simple materials and an easy process, you’ll love customizing your very own ornaments that can be used year after year!
Great to make with kids or to put together while enjoying a hot beverage with your loved ones.
Easy to switch up and personalize with your favorite colors, phrases, and book titles, these homemade ornaments are sure to become a Christmas decorating staple.
Why You’ll Love this DIY Mini Book Ornament
Fun and simple, this craft yields a fun ornament for your Christmas tree! The finished result looks like a miniature stack of books, but can easily be customized to represent whatever you like.
Combine simple wooden game pieces with some paint, twine, and ribbon and you’ve got yourself an adorable holiday decoration that you’ll love hanging on the tree year after year.
These tiny book ornaments are perfect for December gifts for book club members! Get a little fancier than I did and duplicate covers (front and back cover) from your club’s reading list.
Add book cover images and/or matching covers or other embellishments to personalize the ornament!
Other customizations could be making the ribbon out of actual book pages – just use an old book you don’t mind cutting up!
So light up the room with some DIY Farmhouse Rope Candle Holders, get a nice dessert in the oven to fill your home with a festive aroma, and gather your tree decorators!
Whether you make one or two or a whole library of book ornaments, you’ll love the simple but beautiful touch they add to any Christmas tree or holiday display.
List of Supplies for Mini Book Ornaments
- 6 Tumbling Tower game pieces – This is a Dollar Store version of the game Jenga, but any game in this vein with wooden block pieces works fine. You’ll need 6 per ornament, but the games come with lots so you can make a whole bunch!
- Antique White Matte Acrylic Paint – I used this Apple Barrel brand.
- Small paint brush
- Ribbon – Use a festive or holiday themed ribbon for a fun flair.
- Twine
- Glue gun w/ glue sticks
- Scissors
- Fine permanent marker or paint pen
Where to purchase supplies for mini ornaments:
The items you need to make these ornaments should be available at your local craft store like Michaels. You can also order online at Amazon.
How to Make Mini Book Ornaments – Tutorial
- Using the hot glue gun, carefully glue wood pieces together and press down to assure that they stick.
Don’t worry about lining up the blocks perfectly, they can be a little crooked for a more authentic look. - Paint the blocks on all sides and let them dry. This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
Adding a layer of paint helps give the “books” a more cohesive look. - Wrap a piece of ribbon around the wood pieces to measure and snip off. Carefully glue around the left side of the wood pieces and leave a little bit of the wood showing on the left side.
Use your favorite holiday ribbon to customize these ornaments to your preference! Making the Bow
- Cut 10 small pieces of the fabric Christmas ribbon, about 1.5” (doesn’t have to be perfect). Using 9 pieces, turn them upside down and put a little hot glue on one side.
Use more pieces of the same ribbon to form a bow on the top of the ornament. - Carefully join the other side to seal and form a little loop. See the photo below to show you how to glue the ribbon together.
You’ll need 9 or 10 little ribbon loops for each bow. - Using the last piece, make a continuous loop by adding glue to the edge of the print side of the ribbon and overlapping the other side, until you form a cylinder shape. (This is kind of of like when you join a piece of scotch tape together to make it double sided.)
This added detail gives your ornament an extra pop! - Carefully glue the 9 loops across the top of the ribbon on the wood pieces. Line them up side to side. Add the remaining piece to the front to resemble a bow.
Add a piece of twine to the ornament to make sure you can hang it on your tree. - Cut a piece of twine about 3-4 inches and glue both ends to the top part of the wood on the back to form a hanging loop to hang the ornament.
If you want to use these as standing display pieces, you can leave off the hanger. - Allow the ornament to dry. You can leave it as-is, or add wording to it as desired.
Expert Tips and Tricks
- You don’t have to glue the wooden pieces perfectly straight. If you stagger them, the ornaments will look more like a stack of tiny books.
- Use your favorite color paint to make it your own!
- Using a craft stick can help to secure the pieces without burning your fingers.
- If you want to make them really special and detailed, paint each block to look like spines of your favorite books. This can be the most tedious part, but will give your mini book ornaments lots of character and charm!
- Feel free to use multiple coats of paint if you want a more opaque result. This might take longer as you’ll have to wait for each coat to dry properly.
originally published Dec 2023; latest update Nov 2024