Ornament Up-Cycle

Last year, during a Black Friday shopping spree in the states, I had purchased plastic tubes filled with glittery Christmas ball ornaments. But since my husband and I did not put up a tree to celebrate last year, I did not have a chance to use them... and realize how tacky they looked until this year. 

So I came up with a plan to up-cycle the balls and see if they could end up looking more classy when I was finished with them. I pinned a few ideas on Pinterest, but these three were my favourite. 

found here, here, and here

I had most of the materials on hand already which helped keep the cost down so they were very cheap! 


To create the look of the newsprint ornaments, I started out with an old book that I had and was planning on giving away anyway. I carefully removed tore the pages out of the book and shredded them into smaller strips. Then I applied mod podge to both the ball and the paper then stuck the two together in random patterns. I repeated this over and over again, until the ornament was covered in paper, and my fingers were covered in glue. 

After letting the ball dry, I attached a piece of yarn to hang it from. I decided not to stamp "Noel" onto a tag, or add the glitter. Maybe someday if I am feeling extra crafty I will pull out the mod podge again and sprinkle that sparkly mess all over the ornaments, but for now I am leaving them "au natural". I still have more ornaments to tweak, but I am loving the results. 

What are you planning to decorate your Christmas tree with this year? Do you have a themed tree? Or do you decorate the same way every year? I grew up having multi-coloured lights, tinsel, and every ornament we owned hanging on the tree. This will be our first Christmas as a family here at home, so I am very excited to start the decorating process! Only one month to go!