Crushed Glass and Pearls Ornament
I love making all kinds of Christmas ornaments! You can checkout a round up of some of my favorites here! Have I got a beautiful and elegant handcrafted ornament you will truly love It's a very simple craft with a beautiful, and I mean BEAUTIFUL finish! In a nut shell, it's a styrofoam ball wrapped in crushed velvet and covered with
crushed glass and faux pearl beads that are splashed with purple alcohol ink.
Sounds complicated? Of course not! And the best part, I'm using everything from my stash to make a few.
First, lay the fabric out and use the top of a fry pan or something that's 9.5 inches round to make a template of a circle . . .
that is large enough to cover a 3 inch styrofoam ball. I was able to cut five circles out of the leftover velvet.
Next, place the ball in the middle of the circle and . . .
pull the edges up and around the ball, gathering at the top. Grab a small rubber band, doubling it around the top to hold the fabric in place. Then fold a 15" piece of Bowdabra bow wire or twine together to make a loop. Wrap the looped wire around the gathered fabric and insert the two loose ends into the loop, pulling the wire ends tightly around the fabric. Separate the wire ends around the gathered fabric, tightening it and tying in a tight knot to secure the gathered fabric. This technique is great when you don't have extra hands available to help with tying.
Next, pull the velvet fabric up through the bow wire to smooth out any large folds or creases and to make the velvet ball as smooth as possible.
Next, cut off some of the gathered fabric, leaving about an inch of decorative folds at the top. The excess bow wire can be cut off at the knot.
Let's move on to the crushed glass which was probably left over from projects I did here and here. For this, I'm going to mix the crushed glass with alcohol ink! First, pour enough of the crushed glass to decorate a few ornaments into a plastic cup or throw-away container.
Then place several drops of alcohol ink on top of the crushed glass and stir together, Alcohol ink gives off an intense coloring and is a great way to customize crushed glass into my favorite hues of purple! Hot dang!
This is what the color looked like after a few drops and . . .
then adding a bit more to achieve this lovely effect! I did the same with some of my faux pearls I had left over from this project, too! And it doesn't take long for the alcohol ink to dry, either. Once it was mixed thoroughly to a shade I liked, I poured the colored glass onto parchment paper to dry and there was no staining of the paper to my surprise. Doesn't this color look vibrant!
Next, spread clear silicone glue around the bow wire and below in a decorative effect.
Then use a plastic spoon to spread the colorful crushed glass over the glue.
And use the back of the spoon to press the glass into the glue. Let dry.
The larger pearls can be hand placed with a little glue on one side and placed randomly throughout the crushed glass.
To make the hanging loop, fold a ten inch strip of bow wire tying the loose ends together into a knot. Spread a bit of glue on the knot and place in the middle of the gathered folds at the top. Use the sharp tip of scissors to push the wire knot into the center of the foam ball, straightening the loop and let the glue set.
How pretty is this!
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Absolutely beautiful! I was worried though that this could cut you and googled it and found out how the crushed glass is made and how these chunks won’t cut you, phew😊 (I just Google how to make crushed glass for crafts and then watch one of the YouTube videos that came up). Thank you for sharing your beautiful creation💗😊💕
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Shades of purple are so elegant in anything. This is just gorgeous. You have a talent for creating lovely items to make our home more beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
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Thanks so much for your sweet comments, Judy!
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This is absolutely gorgeous! I see a lot of pretty ideas on Hometalk but this one is BEYOND BEAUTIFUL and I can't wait to show my daughter ~ her decor vibe is very elegant and this will fit in perfectly. Purple is her favorite color, also! I've never used crushed glass before, is that something you diy either intentionally or with glass from something you accidentally broke?