Snowball Ornaments

I have to say, none of the photos do the true sparkle of these justice, believe me!

 

Before we start, I want to introduce you to the German Glass Glitter. It’s essentially very finely crushed glass. And it glitters and sparkles like nothing else!

Don’t worry though … even though it is tiny little glass shards, it doesn’t cut your fingers or anything. I have put this stuff to the test and rubbed it between my fingers and everything else over the years and never sustained even a nick or a splinter!

If you are unsure however, do wear gloves

It is also a really good thing to have if you (or a relative as is the case in our family) have a glitter allergy. This stuff does not fly through the air – it is just glass but not so small that you could breath it in or anything like that. It is just a tad larger than the large kind of granulated sugar.

But I want to warn you … since it does so closely resemble sugar, please make sure you do not have this anywhere near the kitchen and keep it away from children!!

 

Anyway, let’s get on with the snowballs!

You will need:

- Glass glitter

- Dollar store polystyrene ornaments

- All purpose craft glue  (I use Aleene's Original Tacky Glue )

- Bamboo skewers

- Paper Plate

 

Pour some of the Glass Glitter in a paper plate. It gives you a good surface to roll the balls and when you’re finished, you can fold the plate in half and use it as a funnel to pour the glitter back into the bag.

I found these ornaments at the dollar store. 10/$1 – a real bargain, but they really don’t look like much. I think they were supposed to be glittered but it was barely visible. But at that price they were great simply because they are a base and a plastic hanging fixture.

 

Once I unpacked them, I realized that the top was barely hanging on as it was and taking them off was less than a little tug.

 

After removing all the tops cover the balls in glue. It doesn’t really need all that much but it needs coverage all over. You can use a brush … or if you’re hands-on and messy like me, you just use your fingers :)

Once covered, push in the bamboo skewers.

Roll the bamboo skewers with the balls around on the plate, evenly covering the entire ball.

Place the skewered balls in a tall glass to dry.

Once dry, remove the skewers and glue the ornament hanger back on.

Let it dry and use as desired.

Of course you can use this to make them into just snowballs, without the hanger. At any size. Even the bamboo skewers are optional. You could just roll the balls around with your fingers and place them on another paper plate to dry. It does however get your fingers quite full of glue and glass.

Would you look at all this sparkling goodness!

Doesn’t it really remind you of a crispy frozen ice/snowball? I LOVE it!!

 

The glue sticks the glitter on pretty well, but if you want to be extra sure that nothing falls off, give your snowball a good blast with a strong hold hair spray.

Incidentally that’s a good way to keep regular glitter from shedding all over the place too! 

 

Ok, so I went on to do this:

I just love what the frosted look does to silver glass ornaments!

I got a pack of mini ones at Big Lots. 41 glass ornaments for $3.

You do pretty much the same as before.

Remove the hanger part. It usually just pulls out.

Cover the ornament in glue. Make sure your glue is clear drying. It’s important on this one!

Since the ornaments were quite small, I used a bamboo skewer to fish them out of the glitter without messing them up too much.

I let them dry for a few minutes, then I put the hanger caps back on to ensure that they still fit. If you wait until the glue is totally dry you may have trouble fitting them back on.

Then I let them dry completely until the glue is clear.

And look at the silvery sparkly goodness!

 

Now I wonder how it would look if I sprayed some of that Krylon Looking Glass Mirror-Like Painton some of the Glass Glitter first and then rolled it onto silvery glass ornaments, or maybe even better – clear glass ones! I guess I’ll be trying that next!

 

I will be linking this tutorial to various link parties over on the side bar. Please visit them to see other amazing craft projects, decorating ideas and recipes!