My friend Liz over at Say Yes To Hoboken is doing a holiday DIY series where she is showing 10 different ways to decorate a glass ornament. Each day she shares a new tutorial. I am loving it!
When I was at Target earlier this week and saw these plastic ornament containers* (they had sparkly hair clips in them), I thought they would be perfect to use for trying out some of Liz's ideas... and some of my own... while making them toddler-friendly (since my active 1 yr old loves knocking down and breaking everything).
RELATED: Need some other Christmas ornament ideas? Try these!
So today I have 4 quick tutorials for decorating a plastic ornament that I want to share with you. We had so much fun doing these that I think I am going to have to go buy more plastic containers to fill!
Ribbon ornament
Materials Needed: ribbon, scissors, and a plastic ornament.
Directions:
1. Have your child snip ribbon into different sizes. Longer is better.
2. Curl the ribbon (adult job)
3. Add the ribbon into the ornament.
4. Close it and seal it (you can use some glue if you want)... and then hang it up using another piece of ribbon.
Marble Ornament
Materials Needed: marble, paint, plastic ornament, ribbon (for hanging)
Directions:
1. Squeeze your favorite paint colors into the container.
2. Drop in a marble and close the container tight.
3. Roll it around.
4. Let paint dry. Close and seal. Attach a ribbon and hang. (Doesn't the inside look so beautiful!!?? This was before my son decided to add red... which then caused the colors to become more brown)
Accordion Ornament
I made this birthday banner and cute polka dot garland for my daughter's birthday party last weekend. I had lots of scrap paper left over, so I thought we could put it to good use for a project.
Materials Needed: scrap paper, scissors, plastic ornament, and ribbon (for hanging).
1. Have child cut scrap paper into strips (or the adult can prep this ahead of time)
2. Then have your child accordion fold the strips. We did this together by folding once, then flipping the paper over and folding again, then flipping it over and folding again, yada. yada, yada. It was fun and a really good fine motor skills exercise for my son. Some looked terrible, some looked good, so we mixed them both around in the ornament and it turned out great.
3. Add the strips to the inside of the ornament and then close it, seal it, and hang it up.
Confetti Ornament
Materials Needed: wrapping paper and paper scraps, scissors, hole punch, Elmer's glue, plastic ornament, and ribbon (for hanging)
Directions:
1. Cut up wrapping paper into little pieces and use a hole punch to make some little circles.
2. Add Elmer's glue to the inside of your ornament and drop in a marble to help move it around. Close it up and shake, shake, shake.
3. Open it up and drop the confetti inside the ornament. Press some of the pieces up against the side to make sure you can see the colors well.
4. Let it dry. Then close it, seal it, add a ribbon, and hang it up on your tree!
How else have you decorated a plastic ornament?Â
I loved all the language opportunities this activity provided... including:
- describing colors and shapes
- talking about movement (confetti falling, marble rolling, ribbon twirling)
- working on fine motor skills such as cutting, punching, folding, and squeezing
*These ornament containers were found at Target in the stocking stuffer area. Each plastic container held some glittery hair clips... which I bought for my daughter... I always love repurposing trash. 🙂 If you can't find these, you could also try some of the ideas out using just basic clear plastic ornaments.
Hi, l have some plastic ornaments, however they do not come apart and the top does not have a opening. What kind of paint should l use on the outside of the ball that will stay on???
Thank you
Joyce Barrows
Use acrylic paint that is formulated for glass or plastic
My older son did something similar to the marble one without the marble a few years ago. But I like it better with the marble and think it would be easier for my toddler class and almost 3 yr old son to do.
The marble ornament Is awesome. This would be a great Xmas craft for young school kids to do. I will definitely be doing this with my grandkids. Thanks
Its a perfect toy for children and its so easy to make at home and it depend you which design you want.
Scratch Cards
Plastic Card Printing
Plastic Card
i love these ideas!!! they are so easy and so beautiful!!!
These are very pretty! Love all the different techniques you used.
I have a number of clear plastic ornaments I picked up on sale at Michael's with the intention of making glitter ornaments…but I might have to use some to try some of these with my 3 year old – I think she'd have a blast, especially with the marble one!
Cute ideas!! I've got one of those "active" 1 yr olds, too! 🙂