Decorating Ornaments Are a Great Winter Craft Project

Decorating ornaments is a great winter craft that the whole family can enjoy. They make great gifts and great memories!

Glittered Ornament Balls:

Supplies Needed:

Heavy Glass Ornament Balls or Plastic Ornament Balls

Glitter (I like Martha Stewart or Doodlebug Sugar Coating Glitter)

Craft or Glitter Glue

Paint brush or sponge brush

Directions:

I had purchased some Prima Flowers years ago called Prima Christmas Baubles. They came in these cute little ball shaped containers that I kept to someday make a craft out of them. They look kind of like ornaments you would hang on a Christmas tree. If you tie some ribbon around the cap you could hand them so I used these containers for this project. I have seen some other containers similar to these at the craft store but you could just pick up real clear glass ornament balls or plastic ornament balls at your local craft store.

Take the cap or top of the ornament off the ball and set aside for later. You will want to put it back on after you have decorated your ornament so that you don't get anything on it during the process.

There are several ways to decorate your ornament. One of my favorites is to cover them with glitter. I am a bling lover. I love sparkle! Especially on my decorations! It is fairly simple to make glittered ornament balls. All you need to do is paint a generous amount of glue with your paintbrush onto your ornament. You will want to make sure you coat it evenly. Then sprinkle your glitter all around your ball and allow the glue to dry. Depending on the type and brand of glue you use the drying times can vary. I suggest just putting them aside until the next day that way you don't smudge your glitter when you try to test it to see if it is dry.

Once dry you can put the cap or top back on your ornament ball and hang from your tree or place several in a bowl as a table decoration.

Tip: Use a craft tray like, Darice's Tray Mate, to catch your excess glitter and put it back in your bottle to use on another project.

If you don't have a craft tray, fold a piece of regular writing or printing paper in half long ways and then open it back up and place on your table under your project. Then glitter you ball and the paper will catch your excess glitter. Gently pick up the paper and fold it in half again and dump the glitter back into your container.

Sometimes if you are using very fine glitter, it is best to use the paper method to catch your excess glitter because it is easier to knock the glitter off of the paper than the plastic craft tray. Sometimes the very fine glitter sticks to the plastic tray.

Suggestions:

- Use blue painters tape to tape off designs on your ball. Then apply glue and glitter to the ball trying to avoid the taped areas. When dry, pull off the tape and you will have a neat design.

- Use paints instead of glitter.

- Be creative. Instead of coloring the balls all one color of glitter try doing one color on top and another on the bottom. When doing this cover the bottom of the ball with glue first and then sprinkle one color of glitter on it. Then cover the rest of the ball with glue and sprinkle on another color. Or make the balls look like characters that we usually associate with Christmas. i.e. Santa, Snowman, Nutcracker