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Easy Coach Gift Christmas Ornaments

Make these easy coach gift Christmas ornaments with your Cricut or Silhouette machine as a simple and thoughtful (and inexpensive!) holiday present for the favorite coach in your life!

Easy Coach Gift Christmas Ornaments

Our tree is up. Our house is decorated. And I am so excited to start sharing alllllllllll the Christmas things over the next month or so– woohoo!

DIY Christmas Ornaments for Team Coaches

My ornament idea is a tree decoration AND a gift all in one. You see, I wanted to get something meaningful for my son’s hockey coaches for Christmas. We are SO grateful for all of the time and support the give to the kids. And Christmas seemed like a wonderful time to thank them for that.

I thought an ornament would be a perfect token of our thanks. Every time they see it on their tree, they’ll be reminded that they are appreciated!

These coach gift Christmas ornaments are so easy to make. And you can easily adapt them for any sport or activity. Here’s how to make them…

Step 1- Gather your supplies.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

I used the following items to make these cute coach ornaments:

  • Cricut Explore Air 2 (Most craft cutting machines should work!)
  • Adhesive vinyl in team colors (I used red and black.)
  • Transfer paper
  • Scraper tool
  • 3/8″ grosgrain ribbon in team colors (I used red and black.)
  • Filler in desired color (I used a clear/white-ish filler because my ornaments are for hockey coaches and I thought it kind of looked like ice. You could use green filler if your sport is played on a field. Or choose one of your team’s colors. Just make it different than your vinyl colors so everything shows up clearly.)
  • Clear ornament disks
Coach Gift Christmas Ornament Supplies

Step 2- Fill your ornaments.

I started by simply removing the cap from my ornaments and stuffing the filler inside with my finger. There was no fancy method here. I just kept stuffing until the ornament was nice and full. Occasionally, I shook the filler to make sure it was evenly distributed within the ornaments.

Stuff Ornament Blanks with Filler in Color of Your Choice

Step 3- Create the design.

I went into my Cricut Design Studio software to create my design. I started by typing “Coach” and then each coach’s last name on two separate lines, making them roughly the size I wanted for my project. The font I used is a Cricut font called Little League.

Designing a Coach Gift in Cricut Design Space

While I was at it, I turned my words red. I simply chose the box under “Linetype” on the toolbar and selected my color. I picked red since that was the color vinyl I was going to be using for them.

Change Color of Wording in Cricut Design Space

How to Curve Letters in Cricut Design Space

I could have left the words in a straight line, but curving the letters seemed a little fancier. Fortunately, Cricut makes this easy with their curve tool.

Simply click the word “More” next to the “Line Space” option in the toolbar and choose “Curve.” From there, I just use the slider to adjust the word to my desired curviness.

Cricut Design Space Curve Tool

Once I had the curve set the way I wanted it, I sized my words and placed them the correct distance apart, based on the measurements of my ornament. I centered the words by selecting the word “Coach” and the coach’s last name and choosing “Align” then “Center Horizontally.” My design ended up being about 2.5″ wide x 2.5″ tall.

Aligning Words in Cricut Design Space

When my words were where I wanted them, I selected the word “Coach” and the coach’s last name. I right clicked, and chose “Attach.” This tells the Cricut software that I want to cut these pieces as one unit. That way, they will already be lined up for me. I won’t have to try to line them up while I’m applying them to the ornament.

Using the Attach Function in Cricut Design Space

How to Use the Weld Tool in Cricut Design Space

Next it was time to create the hockey sticks design that goes at the center of my ornament. (Obviously if you’re making an ornament for the coaches of another sport, you would choose an image appropriate to that sport or activity!)

I chose the simplest hockey stick I could find in Design Space’s images. Since my design was going to be pretty small, a complicated image would involve really intricate cuts that could get messy. A simpler design makes the project easier and less “fussy.”

I used the rotate option at the top right corner of the image to angle the stick the way I wanted it.

Hockey Stick Image in Cricut Design Space

Then I selected the image, right clicked, and pressed “Duplicate.”

Using the Duplicate Function in Cricut Design Space

When I had a second hockey stick, I clicked the “Flip” option in the toolbar. I chose “Flip Horizontal” to give me a hockey stick facing each way.

Using the Flip Function in Cricut Design Space

I went to “Align” and chose “Center Vertically” to get my sticks lined up. Then I used the arrow key to place them my desired distance apart.

Aligning Images in Cricut Design Space

I selected both hockey sticks, right clicked, and chose the “Weld” option. This makes my hockey sticks one piece that I can now move around the canvas together. It also makes sure that the Cricut will cut the sticks as one piece. I don’t want to put extra cuts at the area where the sticks cross.

Using the Weld Tool in Cricut Design Space

I chose a simple puck from the Design Store and sized it to my liking. Then I used Align > Center Horizontally to get it lined up with the hockey sticks.

Placing and Centering an Image in Cricut Design Space

Since I want the Cricut to cut the sticks and puck together as a group, I selected the sticks and the puck. I right clicked and chose “Attach.”

Attaching Design Elements in Cricut Design Space

I then duplicated the design so I had enough of them for all of our coaches. (Select image, right click > Duplicate)

Step 4- Cut the design for your coach gift Christmas ornament.

When I had all of the wording and images created, I hit the “Make It” button. I checked my mats to see how much vinyl I would need in each color. Then I cut the appropriate amount and pushed the “Continue” button.

Preparing to Cut a Design in Cricut Design Space

I put the vinyl on my mat and used the double arrow button on my machine to load the mat in. Then I pushed the Cricut logo button to let my machine know I was ready to go. It started cutting away! I completed this same process for both the red and black design elements.

Use Cricut or Silhouette Machine to Cut Vinyl

When the design is done being cut, push the double arrow button on the Cricut machine to unload the mat.

Step 5- Weed the design for the coach gift Christmas ornaments.

Once my design is cut, I trim around it so I just have the design without much excess (1). Then I peel back the vinyl that is not part of the design and discard it (2).

Weed the Vinyl for Your Coach Gift Christmas Ornaments

Some letters, like O and A and D, will have small pieces of vinyl in the middle that need to be weeded out. I can usually remove these with just my fingers. But if they’re getting tricky, I will use a weeding tool.

Once my designs were all weeded (3), it was time to…

Step 6- Adhere the design to the ornament.

First I cut a piece of transfer paper to match the size of my design. Then I centered it over the wording. I used my scraper tool to scrape over the lettering to make sure it adhered to the transfer tape (1). I could then peel off the backing of my vinyl lettering.

Normally I would put the wording on the ornament first and then add the rest of the design in a separate step. However, since there was a perfect space between the words for the hockey stick design, I decided to place it on the same piece of transfer paper. Then I could place it on the ornament all at once.

I simply lined up the hockey stick design so it was centered. Then I used my scraper again to adhere it to the transfer tape (2). I pulled off the vinyl’s backing, and my design was ready to go (3)!

Use Transfer Tape to Put the Vinyl Design on Your Ornament Blank

Next, I lined up the design so it was centered on the ornament. Since the surface was a bit rounded, it was easier to press down the vinyl with my fingers first and then follow up with the scraper (4). This kept me from getting any unwanted creases in the vinyl.

When I was confident that the vinyl was adhered to the ornament, I peeled back the transfer tape, starting in the upper left corner (5). Once the transfer tape was removed, the design was perfectly in place (6)!

Step 7- Add a bow.

What you provide to hang the ornament is, of course, up to you. I decided to add some ribbon for another pop of our team’s colors.

I started by making a simple loop with a 12″ length of black ribbon (1). This is what will be used to hang the ornament on the tree.

I then took an 18″ length of black ribbon and an 18″ length of red ribbon and put them through the loop (2).

Tie a Bow to the Top of the Ornament

Then I put the 18″ lengths of black and red ribbon through the metal hole at the top of the ornament. I left the black ribbon loop in the center of the 18″ lengths of ribbon (3).

I tied the 18″ lengths of ribbon in a bow together around both the black loop and the metal hole (4). And the ornament was finished!

Step 8- Enjoy your DIY coach gift!

These ornaments are easy to create. And they make a meaningful gift that your coach can enjoy for years to come!

DIY Coach Gift Christmas Ornaments

Coaches do so much for our kiddos. I love having the opportunity to celebrate them a little bit!

If you’re thinking of making these ornaments for your favorite coaches, be sure to pin the image below so you can find this post later!

Coach Gift Christmas Ornaments with Cricut or Silhouette Machine

Here are a few more ornament ideas you can make with your cutting machine:

DIY Monogram Ornament

Family Christmas Ornament

Thanks so much for following along! Have a wonderful day!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

2 Comments

  1. Sarah @ The DIY Mommy says:

    What a wonderful gift! They look just lovely!

    1. Abby Lawson says:

      Thanks so much, Sarah! Have a great weekend!

      ~Abby =)

Comments are closed.