Christmas Ornaments!

     Halfway through finals week I started to get an urge to make something creative. I managed to hold off my cravings a bit until finals were done, before pulling out all of the stops. In past years I have been quite successful at making beaded ornaments using beads from my paternal grandmother, so I started with that. Unfortunately, my efforts were not quite what I had hoped and I didn't make as many of the beaded ones as I had thought.

     I also made ornaments out of plastic canvas. We had some sets that were already pre-cut, so I used those up. Unfortunately, plastic canvas is a pain to cut, so once the pre-cut ones were finished I didn't make anymore out of plastic canvas. Here is a picture of one of the plastic canvas ornaments:

    The final type of ornaments I made was a bit of an experiment. I got the idea off of Pinterest and can say for certain that it works, but some modification would be helpful. First I took burned out Christmas light bulbs (about the size of a nightlight bulb) and coated half of the outside in a layer of Modge Podge.

This stuff is magic!

     After that I sprinkled glitter over the ornaments and left them to dry before going back for a coat on the other side. For some of the ornaments I painted over the outsides so they would match the glitter I was using. About halfway through I realized that I could use Elmer's glue to make a design of a different color on the bulb.

The finished product! They look great!

     The only thing I wasn't happy with how the turned out was that there wasn't a good way to fasten a hanging mechanism to the bulbs. I tried hot gluing some embroidery thread to the ends. That mostly worked, but it was a little tedious. I also tried wrapping wire around the end of the bulb and forming a hoop, but it was difficult to get the wire to stay. In the end I left most of the them unfinished. They look pretty good so I will probably save them to use as props in a Christmas photography project.