Ideas For How To Fill
Glass Christmas Baubles
I love Christmas but I am never prepared! Having decided to try and make my own Christmas ornaments, I then ended up leaving it until December to start.
So I thought 'How do I make some ornaments quickly?' and happened upon a set of hollow glass baubles on Amazon that made it really easy to create 12 unique ornaments in no time...perfect :)
On this page you will find 6 simple and fast ideas for filling clear baubles, with instructions for each. If you prefer tutorials in video form, then I have also made a video here:
F i n d C l e a r B a u b l e s o n A m a z o n :
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Idea Number 1: Preserved Reindeer Moss
I accidentally stumbled on something called 'reindeer moss' on Ebay one day (don't ask!) and I thought it looked interesting, and so when I found out you could buy it in green and red colours I knew what I had to use it for!
I have to say that I particularly like the results and it couldn't be easier to do.
Unusual but festive :)
All you have to do is to take the lids off the baubles and feed small sections of reindeer moss inside. Tweezers really help with the making of all of these ornaments for inserting objects into the baubles.
Reindeer is particularly good for this project, I found, as it's quite spongy and so doesn't get flattened permanently when it's handled.
Idea Number 2: Faux Silk Leaves
This was another item that I found on Ebay; this time whilst searching for "floristry supplies" (which is a good thing to try by the way if you're looking for inspiration).
They were labelled "metallic floristry leaves" and they are made from silver and gold faux silk and plastic.
The plastic stems are a bit too stiff to bend well, especially where they are thicker, so I used the end parts of the leaves where there was little to no plastic stem.
This way, I could easily roll the leaves up to put them through the bauble opening.
I put a few leaves in (both silver and gold) and used tweezers and a knitting needle to push them where I wanted them inside the bauble.
I then added a few silver and gold sequins to add sparkle.
Idea Number 3: Colourful Pom-Poms
Pretty self-explanatory; Just buy an assortment of pom-poms and put them in the bauble!
I wouldn't buy pom-poms any bigger than 10mm though, because then it's too much of a squeeze to get them inside.
Idea Number 4: Punched Paper Shapes
I already own a leaf-shaped paper punch, so I decided to make good use of it and cut out many, many leaf shapes from book pages. It's a versatile idea because you can get punches in so many different designs, including festive ones.
If I was doing this one again, I'd buy a snowflake punch and throw in a few snowflakes made of coloured paper too, to mix it up a bit. Maybe blue... or green and red since it's a Christmas theme.
You can always use the book page leftovers for another craft project, which is what I intend to do :)
Idea Number 5: Iron-On Patches
Guess what? Yup, these butterflies were another random Ebay find!
They are embroidered patches that you can iron (or sew) onto fabrics, but because they are so pretty and sparkly I thought I'd try and get them into the baubles instead.
I really had to roll them up tight - they weren't easy to get in - but I quite like the end result. I think, however, they would be much better if I'd used smaller shapes.
I used a knitting needle to position one butterfly on each side of the bauble, and then added some tiny blue sequins for luck :)
Idea Number 6: Faux Berries
These were another item I found listed under "floristry supplies"; faux berries on plastic and wire stems.
I simply cut off individual berries - some red, some orange - and put them into the bauble along with a leaf or two, and a small amount of the reindeer moss.
Unfortunately what I didn't realise was that a) the berries are made of foam and are white inside, and b) the berries were mostly in bunches, rather than being individual berries on individual stems.
These two issues together meant that I had limited single berries and had to cut bunches of berries up to fit them into the bauble; therefore ending up with berries that had exposed white foam on one side...arg!
So if you want to fill baubles with berries, make sure that they are either singular berries without stems, or they are individually stemmed berries. And that will solve the problem.
And that's it; all 6 ideas finished!
But these aren't the only ideas you can use of course; there are so many other materials you can use in (and on) the baubles. Here is a list that will hopefully give you lots of inspiration:
Fake snow, ribbons and streamers, rhinestones, sequins, pompoms, pretty yarn, confetti, tiny origami stars, tiny scrolls made from book pages, shredded metallic foil, polymer clay cane slices, feathers, tiny pine cones, leaves, small flowers (fake or real), pine needles, small ‘snowballs’ made of white clay, glitter, beads, pearls, shapes cut out of book pages/sheet music/felt, twine, bells, rose petals, tiny shells and sand, shards of candy cane or other hard candy, paint & pot pourri.
Thanks for reading!
