How to Make DIY Christmas Ornaments Out of Recycled Matchboxes

Get creative this holiday season with a unique Christmas craft project! Learn how to make beautiful matchbox ornaments out of recycled materials.

I love using recycled or repurposed materials in my craft projects. I think it gives the project added satisfaction over using craft store supplies.

See my tutorials for making ornaments from wine corks and inspirational wall art from matchboxes.

Before we move on to the tutorial, you might wonder what other crafty things you can do with matchboxes...

Remove the matches and the cover.

All you need for this project is the pull-out box cubby part.

Instead of throwing them away, I stuck both the matches and cover in a ziplock for whenever I might need matches.

To cover the inside of the matchbox cubby, outline the cubby on the back of the card stock you want to use. Then you'll pick up the cubby and measure the sides around it like in the picture above.

Cut out the card stock along the outline you just made, making sure you also cut out the corners. Next, fold the flaps around the sides like in the picture.

Put the folded card stock into the cubby. It should fit pretty perfectly, tho you might need to trim the sides a little depending on how much room you gave when measuring it.

There are so many ways you can decorate the inside of the cubby. I'll show you what I did, but let your imagination run wild. Of course, it will also depend on what supplies you have.

Something you should think about utilizing is double-sided foam tape. It will give paper pictures some depth.

I put the double-sided foam tape on the back of a Christmas door picture.

See how it sticks out a little?

I found a product that's supposed to look like snow, so I used it for this matchbox ornament.

Little plastic Christmas embellishments are great to use for these ornaments. You can get a ton of them for a low price on Amazon.

Another great thing to use for these ornaments is dimensional scrapbook stickers.

Now, we're not done yet. There's the matter of decorating the back of the ornaments.

I used Mod Podge and Christmas napkins to cover the back and sides of two of the ornaments. Since the napkins are so thin, it's easy to cover the cardboard without having to cut other paper.

Here are all three of the backs:

I used napkins for the two on the right and silver paint with a coat of sparkle Mod Podge and a Christmas sticker for the one on the left.

It was also important to me that I included the year I made these. I used vinyl number stickers on two of them and puffy paint on the other.

To make it able to hang on the tree, I used a thin sparkly ribbon and glued it in place on the top of the matchbook.

One more thing...

I knew that these ornaments might not fare too well just being thrown in the box with all the other decorations we use for when Christmas is over.

So, I filled the matchbox with resin.

Now it's your turn! Check your drunk door for matchboxes, and take out your Christmas craft supplies. These are great to give as gifts.

For more DIY ornaments, check out my tutorials for ornaments made with corks, my beaded spiral ornaments, or all my seasonal craft projects.