These DIY ornaments are a higher-maintenance ornament compared to Carla’s post yesterday. Hers are cozy and fluffy. They’re sweet and so beautiful. But these ones are for the girly girl, someone who likes sparkly things and is on-board with the current lace trend. They’re pretty sassy, but they’re also lots of fun to make.
The sequined polka-dot ornament is a great combination of kraft and sparkle. You hot-glue a swirl of sequins to the bare kraft ball to form polka dots. The result is cute and a little playful. I loved the red sequins, so I did them all this way. Gold or silver would be really lovely too. Or you could go extra Christmas-y and do a combination of red and green dots. Have fun with colors and go crazy!
The lace ornament reminds me a little bit of a snowball. Or maybe a tutu. It’s light and fluffy, and you could chose any color lace. Ours had a little bit of a silver sparkle in the lace, which made it seem even more like snow.
I also love that these ornaments won’t break, so they’re relatively kid-friendly (as long as the kiddies aren’t TOO rough with them!). You can hang them on the bottom section of your tree and not worry about little ones breaking them or getting fingerprints on them. Bonus!
A few notes: The string that comes with the balls is usually pretty average-looking and isn’t always glued very well. We replaced ours with a pretty little silvery crocheted strand of ribbon. You only need a little bit, and it goes a long way toward making the final results look more special! And also, you want to use gathered lace on the snowball ornament, not just plain lace ribbon. That’s what gives it the extra ruffly-look.
- 1 Kraft paper mache ball ornament
- 3-4 feet of single-strand sequins (depending on how big you want the polka dots to be and how many of them you want)
- glue gun and hot glue
- optional: 5-6 inches of string or ribbon to replace the one that comes with the ornament
- Use a pencil to make "x"s where you want to place the polka dots on the ornament. This will let you decide how to space them BEFORE you start gluing and it's too late!
- Anchor the first sequin on the strand in the center of the x with hot glue. Trim any string that's hanging off.
- Glue the sequins in a spiral pattern to create a solid polka dot. Keep gluing until you're happy with the size of the dot.
- Repeat until you have created all of the dots.
- Optional: cut off or pull out the string that comes with the ornament. Use hot glue to fix your string or ribbon to the ball.
- 1 Kraft paper mache ornament
- 2-3 yards of gathered lace ribbon, 1/2-3/4 of an inch wide (amount needed will depend on how close your layers are and how big your ornament is)
- optional: 5-6 inches of string or ribbon to replace the one that comes with the ornament
- Optional: cut off or pull out the string that comes with the ornament. Use hot glue to fix your string or ribbon to the ball.
- Start at the bottom of the ornament and secure the end of the lace at the gathered part with hot glue. Try to keep the actual lace part from being pressed against the ball. You want the gather to be glued but the lace should still fall away from the ornament.
- Glue down a few inches at a time in a spiral shape, going up the ball. Spread the lace layers out just enough to cover the top of the layer directly below it.
- Continue until you have covered the whole ball.
