Our Crafty Christmas Ornaments!

Finally!  Two weeks later I am back to share with you how we created and crafted many of the ornaments on our tree this year!  Can I get a WaHoo?!

If you recall, I shared our Christmas tree and I let ya'll know that we made almost every ornament on the tree.  It was our challenge to ourselves this year, and the kids joined in on the fun, making all sorts of great memories along the way.

The goal was to create a plethora of random and vibrant ornaments, each one unique.  The other goal was to keep it simple and easy enough for anyone in the family to do.  Mission accomplished!  We all crafted the weekend away, even the hubs joined in on the fun!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may recall the pretty sight of the projecting in action:

I am here today to share some of our favorites out of the 50+ ornaments we popped onto the tree this year.

Aren't they so pretty?!

Here are some of the main items we used to get our crafting on:

All of the items were purchased from Michaels for the Dream Tree Challenge.  Here is a closer look at each one:

1 - Clear acrylic bulbs, 2 - Craft paint in a pearl finish
3 - Martha Stewart screen printing kit, 4 - Hot glue gun, 5 - Mod Podge
6 - Border paper punch, 7 - Adhesive ribbon, 8 - Paper punches
9 - Rhinestone alphabet stickers, 10 - Twine, 11 - Adhesive dots
12 - Large adhesive glitter dots, 13 - Brads, 14 - Beads
15 - Decorative foam ball vase filler, 16 - Glitter tape
17 - Confetti glitter, 18 - Adhesive pearl banding

Some of the other supplies I used were craft glue, yarn, jewelry wire, needle and thread and pretty snowflake stickers.

And here are the ornaments now with quick tutorial for each below:

1. Fill the bulb with water and then empty it.  Pour in the confetti glitter and roll it around within the bulb.  The glitter will stick to the bulb where wet, and once the water completely dries, the confetti will stay stuck to the bulb.
2. Thread small beads onto thin jewelry wire.  Use a small dab of hot glue at top and wind strand of beads around the ornament.  Add another dab of hot glue at the bottom to secure the strand.
3. Stick happy sparkly snowflake stickers randomly on the bulb.
4. Follow the directions on the silk screening package.  Use a pearly glass craft paint and the squeegee to apply the paint over the silk screen onto the bulb.  The silk screen sticks to the bulb {I had to make small slits in the screen to have it wrap around the curves of the bulb}.  Peel away the screen to reveal a pretty snowflake!
5. Find gems in the jewelry section of the craft store and use hot glue to stick them to the bulb.
6. Apply brightly colored adhesive dots to the bulb in a fun pattern.
7. Stick the adhesive sparkle dots in a random pattern on the bulb.
8. Fill the bulb with pearly craft paint, swirl and empty.  Pop a sticker snowflake to the front to finish it off!
9. Use a paper punch to punch decorative stickers from the roll of glitter tape.  Stick randomly around the bulb.
10. Use the rhinestone alphabet stickers to spell out holiday themed words and phrases such as "Joy" and "Peace".
11. Cover half of the ornament in craft glue.  Wrap with yarn from top to middle.  Cover second half with craft glue and wrap with yarn from bottom to middle.
12. Stick the adhesive sparkle dots in a zig zag pattern around the bulb.
13. Use the paper border punch to punch a pattern out of the glitter tape and wrap it around the bulb.
14. Use sticky ribbon to wrap around the outside of the bulb.
15. Fill ornaments with fun objects, such as leftover glitter foam vase filler.

A few other easy peasy ornaments:

We found a small wooden letter "J" which I wrapped with twine, using small dabs of hot glue along the way to keep it secure.

Use a paper punch to create snowflakes out of brightly colored card stock.  Use small amounts of Mod Podge to attach the snowflakes around the bulb.

Use strips of adhesive pearls and rhinestones to wrap around the outside of the bulb.

To make the garland, we purchased 4 bags of foam glitter ball vase filler.  Using a needle and thread, we strung the vase filler, piece by piece.  It turned out to be our favorite part of the whole tree!

And last but not least... Mix & Match!  We did many of the same techniques on multiple bulbs, just mixing and matching colors, stickers, ribbons and punches.  

So there you have it!  Our crafty and colorful Christmas tree!

And for all of you mommies out there wondering where all of those fantastically created kid ornaments are, we have an annual tradition of letting the kids hang all of their handmade ornaments from years past, on the tree on Christmas Eve.  

Anyone else DIY all or some of their tree decor this year?  How about favorite decorating traditions you do from year to year?