It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… the trees are up (yes trees, yay!), the lights are sparkling and everything feels so cozy. All the decorating has me wanting to create and craft. ALL. THE. TIME. Is there such thing as too many decorations & ornaments? I think not.
The W Network (which would be the equivalent to the Hallmark Channel) has been airing a steady stream of sappy, feel good movies and I am lapping it up. I don’t care that they all end the same or generally have an unrealistic storyline, the leading men in each story is a gift from Santa himself! They make unpacking totes of ornaments more bearable.
As I was decorating I found a bunch of clear plastic balls I purchased last Christmas and never used. Now these balls are super handy to have for a quick craft. I grabbed some card stock, gold & rose gold craft paint, a glue gun, a circle punch, a cup of steaming hot ‘adult’ hot chocolate and started creating.
I didn’t have gold cardstock on hand so I used a 12×12 cream coloured piece and painted it gold using craft paint. While it dries plug in your glue gun so that it’s ready to go when you need it. Using a 1 1/4″ punch I punched circles out of 2 whole sheets. 2 sheets of 1 1/4″ dots is enough to cover 3 large balls.
Starting at the bottom, glue a dot down in the centre. Now above it put a horizontal line of glue, glue down the top of another dot. You don’t want to glue the bottom of the circles, you want to hang straight down. Continue to glue dots next to each other, overlapping the dots slightly until a full row is completed. Move up your bulb and start glueing another row. Offset your dots so that they don’t line up with the dots on the line below. Continue this until you get to the top. Depending on how much space you have at the top, you may have to trim some circles to have them fit and not overlap too much. Once all the dots are glues on, pop your hanger on and your ornament is finished!
I used a 1 1/4″ punch for the larger balls and a 3/4″ punch for the smaller balls. Because of the smaller size of the dots, I used almost double on the smaller balls as I did the larger ones! You’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll make these once you catch your rhythm.
I love, love, LOVE the way they turned out! They go perfectly with the other gold Christmas ornaments on the tree. Being able to see the brushstrokes on the dots adds more dimension to them then had I used a solid color cardstock.
Hang them on your tree, or throw them in a bowl or vase to help create a beautiful vignette. You’ll love the way they add that little bit of something extra to your décor and for less than half the cost had you gone out and bought them this way!
Happy Crafting!
Check out these other great Christmas idea’s!
How to make your own Gift Bows
Tin Snowflake