These flat ornaments couldn't be simpler to make: just fussy-cut the images and glue them onto a scroll-sawed shape, then finish with a coat of Mod Podge.

Because these are printed images just decoupaged in place, there isn't any complicated painting to do, and -- once the cutting is done -- the ornaments are fairly quick to finish.

I cut the ornament shapes from 1/4" hardboard (masonite), but similar ornaments could be made using thin plywood or three layers of cardboard glued together (see my Santa, below). My super-crafty sister suggests using a double layer of mat board, and you could even get away with foam core board, though I'm not sure  how well they would stand up over the long term (wouldn't the foam tend to disintegrate?).

I scanned several images from a book of iron-on transfers that I have in my collection, then colored them on the computer, but you can probably find suitable images on the Internet if you search. Printable coloring pages are a great source of simple images that work well for this project.

Daffy and Sylvester already had Santa hats, but I used my drawing software to add hats to Marc Anthony and Pepe.

I sized the images to about 4" tall, which seems a good size for an ornament, and printed on 20-pound laser paper, which has a nice smooth finish. Ideally the images should be laser-printed, since ink-jet images may smear when decoupaged. If you don't have a laser printer, print the images with your inkjet, then have them color-photocopied, and work with the photocopies to make the ornaments.

You will need only one image if you plan to leave the back plain, but since I wanted my ornament to be two-sided, I printed a second image, remembering to reverse it for the back of the ornament.

I then fussy-cut the images with scissors, trimming close to but not through the outline. Using a pencil, I lightly traced around one of the images onto a small piece of 1/4" hardboard, leaving a tiny margin of about 1/8" all around the image as I traced.

Then using my scroll saw, I cut out the shape just outside the penciled line so that there would be a teeny border on the finished ornament. When the shape was cut, I lightly sanded the edges just enough to remove any roughness. Be careful not to sand off too much of the border.

I wiped off any sawdust residue using a tack cloth, then painted the entire shape with white acrylic paint, paying close attention to the edges. I found I needed two coats around the edge, but I didn't worry too much about the middle since it would be covered by the decoupaged image.

When the paint was dry, I glued the first image to the hardboard using podgy. After it had dried, I glued the reversed image to the back of the ornament, then set it aside overnight so the podgy could cure. I gave the whole thing another coat of podgy to seal the images and to add a bit of shine, and set it aside to dry again.

Once the podgy was thoroughly dry, I drilled a hole in the edge of the ornament using a tiny drill bit on my rotary tool and added a teeny screw-eye. If you prefer, or if your hardboard is thinner than 1/4", you can drill a hole straight through the top of the ornament to take a hook or a string.

If you wish, you can fairly easily add Christmassy details like Santa hats and wrapped packages to make the images more festive. 

I love these ornaments, not only for their relative simplicity, but because I've been able to add some of the more obscure characters, such as Rocky and Mugsie, for whom there are no commercial ornaments available. 

I think my next project will be to add Granny to my collection -- at the moment I don't own any ornaments of her.