How To Make Repurposed Eyeglasses Ornaments For Christmas

I’ve already used some of the wonderful vintage images on this site to make some upcycled dictionary Christmas baubles for my tree. When I came across a pile of old spectacles I thought it would be fun to repurpose them into eyeglass ornaments for the tree.

Every year I get the Christmas decorations out of the loft ready to hang on the tree. I would say that over 70% of my Christmas ornaments are handmade. These handcrafted ornaments are my favourite and often bring back wonderful memories.

By adding some of my favourite vintage images from the site onto these eyeglasses ornaments, I have made them special and memorable. You could add images of your own or any of those on this site.

I think photos would also be great to use and would make these eyeglasses ornaments even more personal. These would make a great gift too.

If you don’t happen to have any old eyeglasses, they are often available very cheaply from junk and charity stores.

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What You Need To Make Upcycled Spectacle Ornaments

• Old eyeglasses – If you don’t have any charity shops are a good place to find them really cheaply.

• Wire cutters
• Clear decal printable paper
• Jewelry wire
• Beads in festive colours of red, green and white. Old necklaces are cheap and affordable ways to find old beads.

How To Make Eyeglasses Ornaments

1. First, using a pair of wire cutters take apart the eyeglasses. You want just one lens for each eyeglasses ornament. So, you will be able to make 2 eyeglasses ornaments from one pair of spectacles.

2. Next, measure the size of the eyeglasses lens. Then select the vintage images you want to use for the ornaments and reduce them in size so that they will fit onto the lens. I selected a few of the images from Pictureboxblue that were festive or in festive colours.

Once you are happy with the choice of images print them onto the decal paper according to the instructions. I suggest you print a test page on normal paper first to check your sizes before printing onto the decal paper.

The decal paper comes in A4 sheets, therefore print more than one image on the sheet.

I also have a collection of vintage Christmas flower drawings on the site that would also look great with these ornaments.

I resized a lot of vintage images for the upcycled dictionary advent calendar I made. These images would work really well with this craft and you can download them for free from the post.

3. Next, cut out the decal from the printed sheet. Then carefully peal away the backing and stick the clear sticker to the front of the eyeglass lens.

4. Next, using the jewelry wire thread and beads on to the wire and then add beads to the bottom and top of the eyeglasses ornaments.

I used beads in colours to match the vintage picture stuck to the eyeglasses ornaments. It’s the beads in Christmas colours that make these ornaments look festive.

You can find this vintage parrot image here along with many more.

The gorgeous vintage rose print used for this ornament can be found here.

These upcycled glasses ornaments look even better when hanging on the Christmas tree when they are placed in front of a light. The Christmas tree lights glow through the lens and illuminate the vintage images.

Another way to make upcycled ornaments with vintage images is to use old jam jar lids.

If you are looking for more ideas for homemade Christmas ornaments there are many tutorials on my other site Pillarboxblue including these other upcycled Christmas ornament ideas. Or subscribe to allfreechristmascrafts for more ideas.

For more vintage image upcycled Christmas ornaments, check out these tuna can butterfly Christmas ornaments.