Advent Calendar Bulb Ornaments

December 3, 2013

This year I'm doing Advent Calendar Bulb ornaments for the kids. I decided to simplify the gifts and do a 'theme' instead of random small gifts. For each of the girls I'm giving them a charm necklace on the first day with a new 'charm' for each subsequent day. Each charm will represent something about them. 
To present the gifts I filled clear plastic (not glass because they wouldn't last a day in our house) ornaments with hand made tissue paper confetti and placed the gifts in the center so they can't be seen. You can get fun with the confetti. Other color ideas are silver, green a mix of red green and gold....whatever! I used foam numbers dusted with glitter to indicate each day of the month leading up to Christmas. You can find the tutorial for the bulbs below. 
By the end of the month the girls should each have 25 charms on their necklace. The below photo is the first charm Lily received, a teapot, because she and my mother love to have 'afternoon tea' like the Brits;-)
I bought the first few charms at AC Moore but they were kind of pricey at $3 a piece. That's $6 a day! That's $150 over the whole month. But I searched online for the exact same charms called "Charmtastic" which I bought at AC Moore and they are currently selling at Janlynn.com for only 75 CENTS a piece!!!! Hopefully this isn't a cyber Monday thing and they'll stay that low for the whole month if you're interested in doing the same thing. Get my tutorial on how I made the balls below!

Materials:
Foam stick on numbers bought at a craft store
Clear plastic or glass ornaments (If you are putting larger items in the ornament you will need to buy the kind of plastic ornaments that open down the middle. Like these on Amazon.)
Modpodge
Paint Brush
Fine glitter
Tissue paper
Sharp scissors

Step 1: Using your finger or a brush cover the top of your foam number with modpodge. At first, I tried to use a spray on glue but the glitter didn't adhere well and it made the sticky back less effective.

Step 2: Stick on number to ball.

Step 3: Sprinkle fine glitter on the number.

Step 4: Let dry.

Step 5: After the glue has dried take a clean dry brush and dust off the excess glitter.


Step 6: Make confetti out of tissue paper by folding tissue paper and cut tiny 1/4" lines with a sharp pair of scissors. Then cut off those lines horizontally thus making your confetti. Remember to make it small because it must fit through the top hole of your ornament. You can also just shred the paper if you have an electric paper shredder. That's the easiest but honestly I like the look of the handmade way more.

Step 7: Make a funnel out of paper.



Step 8: Fill the ornament with the confetti until it is about 1/3rd filled.

Step 8: Insert your gift. Then keep filling with the confetti until the ornament is full. Put the top back on. Hang on tree. Done!



 
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