last year i made a custom ornament with
-clear glass ball ornament (just like you used)
-seemingly tacky silver sparkle alphabet stickers
-my random bead/sequin collection

using the stickers i put a monogram on the front and ‘08 on the back and dumped all the beads/sequins i had that were any shade of blue or silver into the ornament. it didn’t fill it up (so it doesn’t compete with the text) but it has a nice sense of movement.

One year my mom and I went crazy making ornaments for everyone. We took the same clear ornaments and put a couple drops of rubbing alcohol in each, swished it around, and tapped out the excess to clean them. Then we would pick 2 or 3 colors that looked well together and squeeze about 2 lines of each paint color down the inside of the ornament (we used the simple craft paint you can get at Walmart or JoAnn’s for about $1/bottle).Place them back in the box/holder they came in, but on their sides, and every so often roll the ornament to swirl the paint. It takes some practice to figure out how to get that “perfect” swirl – but the results almost always turn out great. When you’ve got a swirl you’re happy with, you’ll need to get some paper towels and use them to tap out the excess paint in the ornament.

Our favorite thing was to make ornaments that had a person’s favorite sports teams’ colors in them, like blue & white for the Magic or purple & yellow for The Vikings.

So many ornament ideas, so little time!

Thanks so much for sharing your ornament decorating tips and tricks. We can’t wait to tackle some more in the near future.

xoxo,
Sherry