25 Days of Ornaments: Using see-through balls (round-up)

One type of ornament I would have loved to experiment with this year was clear, fillable ornaments, as I've seen so many cute examples online. But alas, it's not to be -- I haven't been able to find any fillable balls in Istanbul -- so we'll just have to settle for a round-up.



1. Washi tape ornaments  2. Ornament filled with candy sprinkles 
3. One-minute ornament filled with Legos  4. Ornaments filled with holly sprigs 
5. Anthropologie salt-shaker ornament

I have fond childhood memories of applying glitter to glass balls during school projects, but these clear, fillable ornaments are taking it to a whole new level.

Try using:

1. Washi tape:  As you can see in the first photo above, in the project from nestofposies-blog.com, you don't actually need a see-through ornament to decorate a Christmas ball with washi tape, but it can make for stunning results. However, washi tape can be expensive, so I'd recommend checking out your local Target first. The last time I was there, I bought a four-pack of paper tape in the office supplies section for just a few dollars, and they have a brightly colored nine-pack for $6.99 that you can see online. I might also experiment with Duck Tape, considering all of the different patterns and colors their tape now comes in.

2. Candy: How amazing is this ornament filled with colorful candy sprinkles from littlegrayfox.blogspot.com? She also demonstrates how to paint the inside of the ornament.

3. Toys: On notimeforflashcards.com, they presented one-minute ornaments -- i.e., what could you quickly fill a see-through ornament with? While my favorite was, of course, the one filled with colorful Perler beads, I also thought the Lego ornament would be a lot of fun.

4. Nature: Bhg.com has 20 suggestions (via a slideshow) for ways to spruce up an ordinary glass ornament. With this one, they took a clear ornament and filled it with a sprig of holly (or is that mistletoe?). Doesn't matter -- either would be lovely.

5. The last one is not exactly an ornament, but nonetheless my favorite. How great is this salt-shaker thingey from Anthropologie? I can't see what it was intended to be -- snowglobe? desktop decoration? -- as the product is gone from their website, but I think you could make it into an ornament if you so chose. Fill your salt shaker with a bottle brush tree and some fake snow and then tightly close the top (you could even superglue it if you were worried about it coming loose). To hang it, I think you could go one of two ways: You could wrap some kind of tie around the top (a leather string used for jewelry-making or jewelry wire, for example), or you could thread string or wire through the salt holes on the top.

Enjoy!