We’ve been busting out pieces of holiday decor around here at a rate that rivals Santa’s workshop: from modern clay geo ornaments and glittery snow globes to colorful knotted garland for our festive faux fireplace. Phew! And now, we’ve taken on the ultimate timed challenge: to trick out eight clear ornaments in under a minute each! We have to say, while it may sound intimidating, it was a cinch to do. The trick: remembering it’s what’s inside that counts!
While these see-through ornaments have endless potential, we stuck to stuffing them with eye-popping odds and ends that any seasoned DIY-er should have on hand—think colorful pom poms, glistening glitter, and even a pair of air plants! Get ready for the ultimate holiday hack: on your mark, get set, MAKE!
Materials:
– large clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– small pom poms
– festive string
We’ll start with what might be the simplest DIY ornament on our roundup—one stuffed with colorful pom poms! Pop these cozy embellishments right into your ornament, tie off with a festive string, and you’re ready to slap it on your tree. See, we told you these were fast!
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– silver glitter
– festive string
Tools:
– paper cone
– washi tape
Get a modern “dipped” look without busting out the painter’s tape! While we’re suckers for a classic gold dip (we do it on everything from vases to woven baskets), we opted for a more wintry silver version, which you make by carefully dumping silver glitter into your ornament. We tried to avoid getting glitter everywhere by rolling a piece of craft paper into a cone and using that as our transfer tool. But wait, what about the washi tape? Surprisingly, we’re not using it as a decorative element in any of these designs. Rather, we discovered that it makes the perfect stand to keep your ornament in place while you fill it. Who knew?
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– faux snow
– 1/2 inch vinyl lettering
– festive string
Tools:
– paper cone
– washi tape
We had a ton of vinyl letters laying around from a recent round of glass etching projects, so we decided to use them in this ornament DIY. Full disclosure: we did attempt to etch our glass ornament, but the iridescent glare made the frosty finish near impossible to see. We still loved the way the ornament looked before we peeled the letters off, so we decided to redo and stop at step one! We’re pretty smitten with the unintended results: the black vinyl letters add a cool, graphic pop to this faux snow-filled ornament—it’s one of our faves!
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a side opening
– colorful paper confetti
– festive string
Tools:
– washi tape
If you’re stocking up on New Year’s Eve party supplies already, be sure to reserve some colorful confetti to make this festive ornament. We went with this lovely matte paper confetti, but you could always add some glitz by filling it with metallic bits.
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– gold paint
– festive string
Tools:
– washi tape
We got our inspiration for this ornament from a DIY basic that’s an oldie but a goodie: the inside out painted mason jar. Rather than use spray paint, we thought we’d go for more of a marbled effect by pouring shimmery gold paint into our glass ornament and swirling it round and round. For this method, it’s best to use house paint or paint that flows more easily. Acrylic paint in tubes is likely not going to flow the way you want it to—see how our paint drips into whirling shapes? Let it rest upside down on a paper plate until dry, then tie on a festive string to finish. The result is nothing less than luxe…and practically mess-free!
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a side opening
– tinsel garland remnants
– festive string
Tools:
– scissors
– washi tape
With all the events we host here at Brit HQ, you can be we’ve cycled through our fair share of garlands. So for this ornament, we decided to reuse one of our more well-loved ones from our go-to garland supplier, Studio Mucci—if you ask us, there’s no better place on the web to get gorgeous garlands! So we snipped off three tinsel tassels, trimmed them down to size (we even gave the gold tinsel an extra thin snipping), and stuffed them into our ornament. These would make awesome party favors for any NYE bash!
Materials:
– clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– mini pine cones
– metallic gold spray paint
– white glitter
– festive string
Tools:
– paper cone
– washi tape
Get lost staring into this mini winter wonderland—complete with tiny gilded pine cones and glistening glitter snow! To create this whimsical winter scene, spray paint your tiny pine cones gold and let them sit to dry, about 10 minutes–just make sure they fit through the opening of your ornament first! Then, dump white glitter into your ornament with the help of your hand paper cone and pop in each pine cone, one by one!
Materials:
– large clear glass or plastic ornament with a top opening
– moss
– festive string
Tools:
– needle nose jewelry pliers or long tweezers
– washi tape
We’re obsessed with air plants, and how can you blame us? The root-less plants are the most effortless way to add greenery to a modern space, not to mention that caring for them is beyond easy. So we thought we’d create a holiday terrarium of sorts by adding a pair of air plants and a cushy bed of bright green moss to our oversized ornament.
Once you’ve inserted the moss, add each air plant with needle nose jewelry pliers, tweezers, or any other long handling tool you might have lying round—this makes it easier to arrange your plants among the fluffy moss. Once you have them in place, handle with care! Even the slightest shake could knock your natural set up. Once a week, take this ornament down from your tree and spray the contents with a small amount of water. Make sure the plants are completely dry before re-capping!
Annnd time! According to our clock, that’s eight tree-ready ornaments made in eight minutes! You can take it easy from here on out, we promise :)
Every addition was so simple, yet each ornament makes quite a statement, some more literally than others ;) What will you do with all this spare time? Our next move definitely involves a these eight ornaments and a tree!
Are DIYing your ornaments this year? What tree-worthy ones are you creating? Talk to us in the comments below!
