Tutorials

How to Make Arabesque Tile Ornaments with Vinyl

Learn how to turn plain, white arabesque tiles into beautiful DIY Christmas ornaments.

There are so many ways to customize these arabesque tile ornaments and making them is super easy with the right SVG design - like these adorable snowmen (and women!) that you can find in the November SVG Design & Font Bundle.

These arabesque ornament SVG designs were perfectly formatted for the arabesque tiles that I found at Lowe's.

Next, you'll need to cut out the design in vinyl - like Oracal 651 - in the colors of your choice.

I used the Cricut Maker to cut out the vinyl, but you can use whatever cutting machine you like.

Then, weed out the excess vinyl from around the cut arabesque ornament design.

Next, transfer the weeded vinyl onto transfer tape.

Wipe off the ornament with isopropyl alcohol and transfer the vinyl.

The hinge method is one of the most effective ways of applying adhesive vinyl. Read more about the best way to apply adhesive vinyl here.

For smaller pieces of vinyl, you might find it easier to just "eyeball" the vinyl placement ...

... and place it by hand. Just remember to always burnish the vinyl really, really well.

Next, place the ornament on a piece of felt and trace around the outside with a pen. The felt used in this project came from the craft store.

Then, use scissors to cut out the traced ornament, cutting inside the pen lines.

Heat up your glue gun, and select a ribbon or ribbons to use to hang and decorate your ornament. The mat placed under the glue gun is a silicone mat and it catches any drops of glue from the glue gun (the silicone repels the glue so it doesn't stick).

Apply a dab of hot glue to the back side of the ornament. Note: make sure you apply it at the top of the ornament!

While the glue is still hot and while using a silicone protected finger, place and press a small length of ribbon into the glue until it cools.

Next, repeat this step with a longer length of ribbon, but place it with the ends extending from either side of the ornament.

Then, apply the hot glue to around the edges of the back of the ornament ...

... and adhere the felt to the back.

Flip the ornament over and tie that second ribbon into a bow.

Optional variations: Before applying the back felt piece, you could add a special message, monogram, or date onto the felt. You could do this with heat transfer vinyl, a permanent marker, or you could even embroider a message with an embroidery machine.