Memory Preserving Glass Ornaments...

by Feathering My Nest - Lacey Haskell

30 Minutes

Medium

I am excited to be sharing this DIY as part of the Hometalk.com and CountryLiving.com Home For Christmas Blog Hop!... there is going to be so much Christmas greatness to look through! :)
I'm a memory keeper and so I've come up with these darling little ornaments that you can make every year to preserve your favourite Christmas memories from every year!... after a few years you'll have built a collection of Christmas memories that you hang on your tree every year and keep building on!

Gather your supplies

For these ornaments I used glass corked vials, liquid leaf in gold, a vinyl stencil, string, crazy glue and some ribbon!... for the memories you'll need paper and scissors.

Weed that vinyl

Weed the letters out of the vinyl after you've cut it to a size that fits comfortable on the glass container... I like to do a name and date... I've made them for myself and my Pickle, so that we have one each... and I have one that just has a date on it for us to both put some notes into :)

If you don't have means to cut vinyl or purchase custom vinyl stencils you can freehand paint your text and date onto your ornaments... or even use a metallic pen to get the same look!

Transfer paper time

Place transfer paper onto the stencil... rubbing it all over to ensure it picks up the little vinyl insides of the letters... we don't want to lose those! :)

Vinyl on

Place the vinyl onto your glass container and rub it firmly all over to ensure the vinyl bits are all adhered and that there are no air bubbles...

Transfer paper off

Slowly peel away the transfer paper ensuring that the insides of the letters don't lift away... once the transfer paper is out of the way give the letters another rub around their edges to ensure good adhesion of the vinyl... we don't want the paint to bleed under.

Liquid leaf time

Now it's paint time... get the liquid leaf on there... not too much so that its running and not to little that the paint is transparent... once you're happy with the paint carefully peel the vinyl stencil away... I peel the vinyl away while the paint is still wet to avoid the risk of dried paint being lifted by the stencil as it is being removed.

Then using a needle I carefully remove the centres of the letters... the needle gives the precision needed to pick the tiny bits of vinyl out.

Text on

BAM!... the text is on your glass ornaments...

I cut paper to write Christmas memories onto to fit each ornament... I tied the little scrolls with gold thread to make them easier to get in and out of the jars. You can use a long piece of paper... you just have to roll it up tightly... the string will keep it from getting loose and making it hard to get out of the ornament when you want to read your notes in the future :)

Glue the ribbon and hanger

The non lipped vials require a little more love than the lipped vials to ensure they stay on the Christmas tree... as there is no lip to keep the ribbon from slipping off I use a tiny dot of gel super glue to affix the ribbon to the glass... and as you can see I've also tied a little string around the ribbon fore I apply the glue... this little string will be used to hang the ornament!

itty bitty glue dot

See!... tiiiiny dot of glue... so tiny.

Press and hold

Press the glue dotted ribbon onto the ornament... once it is dry bring the tails around and tie a bow at the front of the ornament...

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TADA!... Your ornaments are ready to hang!

I hope you have fun with this one!... and please come on over to the Feathering My Nest Facebook page to share some photos of your preserved memory ornaments! and for a few more photos be sure to checkout the blog post at the link below!

xo Lacey

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1 question

Malinda Clay on Dec 10, 2015
I love this idea for my new grandbabies. Where did you get the glass vials? I have seen small bottles at places like Hobby Lobby but not like the vials. Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond. I just love this!

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4 of 26 comments

Donna Hagen on Dec 12, 2015
fabulous idea!

1 Reply
- Feathering My Nest - Lacey Haskell on Dec 15, 2015
  @Donna Hagen Thank you Donna! :)
  
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Karen Pullen on Dec 21, 2015
Sweet and a must-do! Thanks for sharing...

1 Reply
- Feathering My Nest - Lacey Haskell on Dec 21, 2015
  Thank you Karen!
  
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