Orthodox Christmas Ornaments {2009}

The ornaments from our Orthodox Children's Ornament Swap have been arriving all week! The boys have had so much fun running to the mailbox every morning and opening their packages!These are the ones we've received so far (minus the magazine in the background of course) :The packages were filled with lots of fun treats and beautiful cards. I love seeing our tree covered in more Orthodox ornaments too! I love when they are made by children; they always seem to somehow capture their innocence.We made our ornaments out of printable Shrinky Dinks.First I found an icon and re-sized it to fit 4 per page. Then I lightened the color to 50% (it darkens as it shrinks) and printed them on the special paper.Here is a before and after photo to get an idea of how much they shrink.Then we cut them out, leaving a thin white border for the boys to color. After that we punched a hole in the top center of each one, placed it on a paper bag (they stick to metal) and baked them.Here's what they look like in the oven:After they cooled, Ace colored the border with metallic silver Sharpie marker and I sprayed them with a clear gloss coat of spray paint. I wrote their names and the year on the back too. Lastly, we strung a piece of ribbon through them, wrapped them in tissue and placed them in a little red & silver velvet pouch. I thought the pouch would be a good place to keep all the ornaments from the swap in.Thanks again to all of you who participated! We love each and every one of them--I can't wait to see the rest of them!