We have enjoyed decorating our tree this year with handmade ornaments… pretty little treasures we have made ourselves. I can’t tell you the joy and pride my children feel when they hang one of their very own decorations on the tree. Instantly, their little creation becomes magical. It’s a beautiful thing to see.
If you had told me a while ago that we’d be hand making our ornaments for our tree this year, I would have laughed unbelievingly… ‘Never!’ I would have said… ‘Not us… we don’t have it in us!’ I would have declared. Wrong! We all have it in us… all you need is the understanding that perfection comes second to the joy you feel at having made something special.
Today, we made Sparkly Yarn Ornaments… they are very sweet and such fun to make as they require the popping of a balloon! This craft was a firm favorite of my Mr T.
What you need to make your Sparkly Yarn Ornaments is…
small balloons
A pin
Colorful yarn
Glue
Glitter Glue
A paint brush
Begin by squeezing glue into a recycled dish (we used an old plastic yogurt container that we could just throw away when we were done). Add a little water to the glue to thin it out a little… you’ll want your glue to be the consistency of light cream.
Dip your yarn into the glue mixture.
Submerge your yarn in the glue and let it soak for a few minutes.
Wrap your glue soaked yarn around one of your small balloons.
Around and around until your balloon is nicely covered with yarn. Tuck the loose end to secure it in place.
Set your wet, yarn covered balloons on a sheet of plastic to dry in the sun.
As the yarn dries, the glue in the yarn hardens and your ball becomes firm.
When your ball is almost dry, you can paint it with glitter. We used gold and silver glitter.
This was K’s favorite part of the craft as she is a glitter girl extaordinair… her idea of making something nice is to put copious amounts of glitter on it… in her view, anything can be fixed with glitter!
The more the merrier.
Set your glittered yarn ball in the sun to dry.
And now for the fun part… popping the balloons. For us, it happened so quickly and with so much whooping and joyful clapping that capturing it with my camera was impossible. Mr T delighted in this activity… the balloon makes a wonderfully loud ‘POP’ and then a curious ‘Woosh’ as it pulled away from the glue. We were very sad we only had 4 to pop!
And now for the fun part… popping the balloons. For us, it happened so quickly and with so much whooping and joyful clapping that capturing it with my camera was impossible. Mr T delighted in this activity… the balloon makes a wonderfully loud ‘POP’ and then a curious ‘Woosh’ as it pulled away from the glue. We were very sad we only had 4 to pop!Gently take the popped balloon out from the inside of your sturdy yarn ball.
Tie a piece of ribbon into a bow for hanging your Sparkly Yarn Ornament and find a special spot for it on your tree.
Our Sparkly Yarn Ornaments hang on our tree in pride of place… they really are pretty.
Blessings and magic.
17 Responses
Those are beautiful D! I think we have just enough time to make them……
Gasp!!
I had forgotten all about those!!
Uh….. maybe we can add them to Solstice tomorrow…
Phew! Good thing we’re gettin’ up with the Sun! :)
Thanks so much for reminding/telling us about these!
Oh, I LOVE them!!! We made a bowl this way over the summer, but these are perfect! And the glitter glue just puts the icing on the cake!
:)Lisa
These are beautiful D.
I love all your ideas and pictures. Here is another decorating idea for Christmas.
They are amazingly beautiful! It’s probably too late for us to try this this year, but we’ll surely give it a try next Christmas! They are SO lovely!
These are fun to make, aren’t they! Thanks for the reminder-maybe, just maybe we’ll have time for these. Yours turned out great!
Those are just lovely! I have a K also ;-) And we are both glitter girl extaordinair’s. Anything is made beautiful with a bit of glitter, tee hee. I might have to try some of those ornaments…the girls would love them! Thanks for sharing the tutorial.
Jamie :)
we will have to make one this year! Thank you for sharing.
This looks so fun! I’ll have to try this with my girls this week :D I love your blog – so many fun, fantastic ideas. You’re such a creative mamma!
I remember making these years ago using string, I like the yarn ones so much better! They are much sturdier, love em!
lovely made!!! So easy… Just the sun isn’t shining so much here, hihihihi.
Super idea!!
Thank you so much! I made these with my preschool kids last week and it was a hit! It also was great for my kids with sensory issues. I love your blog.
I’m linking to this tomorrow 8/3, for Christmas ideas! Beautiful!
I feel so lucky to have found this! Next week is fall break and I’m looking for some easy and fun crafts for the kids. They all love glitter…and to combine that with popping balloons…sure to be a winner!
I am going to try to make these tonight… Have you ever tried using twine?? I’d like to hang ours on the covered porch {to resemble bird houses}. Any experience with twine?
Also is starch better than glue? Have you tried both? What do you recommend?
Lastly-can I have a button to your site? ;) do you have a little image I could put on my own site {as a back link to yours}? I believe my small group of readers may enjoy The Magic Onions!!
Has anyone ever tried twine? Or starch instead of glue? What was your experience? I’d like to make these tonight!