Handmade Silvered Glass Ornaments

Behold a beautiful glass ornament with delicate, marbled threads of silver.  Is it a precious and costly adornment that can be found only in the finest stores?  Or...

an easy and inexpensive craft project even kids can help with  

The Annual Christmas Ornament is a longstanding tradition in our family.  Every year, back when our kids were young, they would craft special ornaments to give away as Christmas gifts to every person who gave a gift to them.  Every year we chose a different project -- from origami to baked clay to painted wood -- and it was always a fun thing for our family to do together.  More importantly, it was a great way to teach our children the joy of giving.

I hope this is something you will try with your young ones.  To get you started, let me show you how easy it is to make these lovely silvered-glass ornaments.  Some steps of this project can be done by young children with your adult supervision, so do get the kids involved.

It takes just a few easy-to-find supplies:

• clear glass bulb ornaments
• Krylon silver looking glass spray paint
• acrylic paints (black, navy and white work best, but try any color you like)
• an empty egg carton
• some newspaper to cover your work area

First remove the hanger caps off the ornaments and put them aside.  Set out your egg carton, and then get started with the fun stuff.

Have a grownup spray a small amount of the Krylon looking glass paint inside an ornament.  Begin swirling to spread the paint in uneven streaks.  Let a little of the paint drip out into the egg carton, and then swirl again.  Repeat this process until the inside of your ornament is criss-crossed with silver "marble" veins.  Set the ornament upside down in the egg carton and allow the excess paint to drip out and the inside to dry thoroughly for a day or two.

In the next phase, start by pouring just a teaspoon or two of acrylic craft paint into each ornament, and slowly rotate them to spread the paint thinly.  

*** This is a fun step that your kids may be able to help you with.  Supervise them to 

make sure they don't drop, squeeze or break the ornaments, or let the paint drip out. ***  

As the craft paint spreads over the dried mirror paint inside the ornament, it will create a beautiful "marbling" effect.  Once the paint has covered the entire inside of the bulb, set the ornaments back in the egg carton, open-end-down, to let the excess paint drip out and the remaining paint dry on the inside.

Here is an illustration of what the ornaments look like at the beginning, after silvering, and after painting with both white and dark blue paint:

Wait another day or two, then wipe or trim any excess dried paint from the mouth of the ornament, and replace the hanging cap.

These make great gifts for teachers, grandparents, neighbors, troop leaders, coaches, dance instructors, babysitters... you'll want some, too, so make lots!  And have lots of fun doing it.