Glittered Christmas Ball Tutorial

October 24, 2011 By 4 Comments

I hope you had a nice weekend. I did. My hubby knows we won’t go out much unless we have a reason because I always worry about whether the house will still be standing if we leave the Mongolian Horde home alone…so, he bought us season tickets to the symphony! I love the symphony…there is no comparison to hearing gorgeous music played live. Saturday night was our night for that and we had a delicious dinner at Carraba’s before we went. For some reason (it’s not a holiday or anything) the event was a patriotic concert. It was wonderful and at one time they played one of my favorite pieces (Bach’s Air for strings) in honor of fallen servicepeople. it was so beautiful I cried through most of it. That night we had to miss an Oktoberfest party given by our neighbors so on Sunday night, they invited us over for brats and beer! We had a wonderful time both nights, my house was intact when we returned on Saturday and the horde was on good behavior in general over the weekend. All in all…..a good few days……


I wanted to share a pic I took last week when I couldn’t sleep and was up for the sunrise. This is looking down the creek behind our house….how beautiful….




Today I’m going to show you how I made these Christmas balls. They are nothing unusual and my method may not be the best one out there. But, they were quick and easy and I think they came out quite nicely…



They have a nice sparkle to them don’t they? What I like about this idea is that the glitter is on the inside of the ball….not the outside. The glitter on the outside makes a mess as it is always flaking off. Putting it on the inside enhances the sparkle I think because the glass itself has a sheen. So, let’s get started….


Supplies: glass balls…not plastic…spray paint…glitter…



Now, my first choice in spray paint was the mirror paint. I was just going to spray the inside with that and be done. It can look like mercury glass. But, even though I’ve seen it before, I couldn’t find it this time. This is a variation of my first idea…..Semper Gumby….that’s my motto…

Remove the little hanger from the top of the ball. Give your paint a good shake and put the nozzle right up to the opening on the ball. Spray into the ball…it’s hard to say how much but I just counted one, two, three, four five……and stopped. You can add more paint if you realize you don’t have enough to cover the inside completely. But, the paint really drizzles down well and you’ll see after one or two, how well it covers and have a better idea of how much to spray.


After you spray, immediately roll the ball around a bit and try and cover most of the inside. Invert it onto a piece of cardboard to drain. Let it drain about 10 seconds and move it to another spot. 


The ball on the right hasn’t been glittered yet. let the ball drain only long enough to be sure most of the paint has run out….you need the paint to still be very wet inside for the glittering process.

Open the bottle of glitter about this much…


Once again, I am using MS sterling glitter. One thing I like about her containers is this nice top which can adjust for flow. You are going to pour in a nice steady stream of glitter straight to the bottom of the ball. Immediately after pouring, shake the ball well to disperse as much glitter as possible over the wet paint. You may need to add more and shake again if you see areas that are not covered.


Set the ball back in the container and let them dry thoroughly.


Put the tops back on after they are dry and then decorate them how you like. I made muslin strips and stamped them..


I love this gadget because I can do a whole word. It is mirror image however so make sure you don’t stamp LUFYOJ……it could be a dirty word in Norwegian…


And there you have it…..pretty…and easy…..


Next time, I hope to share what I’m doing with 30 of these……


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Comments

  1. Anonymous says:
    October 25, 2011 at 2:17 am

    MOSQUITO CREEK IS SO BEAUTIFUL AT SUNRISE!!

    Reply
  2. Chatty Cathy-Clip Your String says:
    October 25, 2011 at 3:08 am

    Ha Ha Ha. I think I know who anonymous is!!!!

    I love the ornaments! I may have to make some for my tree this year! Great tutorial and Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Sandi @ The Primitive Skate says:
    October 25, 2011 at 3:42 am

    Love how your ornaments turned out. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says:
    June 19, 2012 at 8:53 pm

    im still cracking up about the dirty Norweigan word!

    Reply

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