Glittery Ball Ornaments

These beautiful Christmas ornaments look just like the ones that you buy in the store, but you can create any design you like. Tailor them to your own Christmas tree or to your gift recipient's decor.

Designer note: This project was created by Elle’s Studio’s mom, Vicky :)

What you need

Ball ornaments
Glitter (recommended: Martha Stewart brand)
Glue such as Scotch Quick-Dry Tacky Adhesive
Rhinestones

What you do

Here is a close up of the Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive - if you can't find this glue, try to find glue with a fine tip. The finer the tip, the better the end result will work!

First, practice your design on paper. We choose to do a swirly pattern around the entire ball - but there are lots of different things you could do! Some examples would be: Names, monograms, year, hearts, stripes, snowflakes, etc.

Since we choose the swirly pattern she started with the base of the pattern and made a line that went around the entire ball with the glue. The line had a little wave, but stayed pretty centered on the ball.

Before the glue can dry, she sprinkled the glitter on the line. Let the line dry before continuing. This would be a good time to do the lines on all the balls while waiting. Setting up an assembly line will make the process go faster since you will be waiting awhile for the glue to dry in each step!

After the line is dry, it is time to add the swirls! Try to not worry to much about how smooth your lines are - the glitter hides all those imperfections!

Put glitter on the glue again and set aside to dry.

Repeat the above steps around the ball again, so you will have a total of two lines that wrap completely around the ball - dividing the ball into quarters. This allows the perfect amount of swirls and allows the glitter to catch the light at any angle. It is such a beautiful sight!

TIPS

• Use a cupcake pan to hold the balls while they are drying
• If your balls are to small and the cupcake pan doesn't hold them up high enough, turn the cupcake pan upside down! This worked like a charm.
• Put the balls back into the same packaging. They will look store bought.
• Work on waxed paper. This allows you to collect the glitter that doesn't stick to the glue on the balls and put it back into the jar.
• After the balls are completely dry (you can even wait until the next day to be completely sure) use a dry paint brush to brush off the excess glitter.