snow and rhinestone christmas ornament

So, I said last week that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to post my 12 Days of Christmas Ornament DIY’s all in a row…well, considering it is now the 11th, and I still have 11 more DIY’s to go, it looks like I have now forced myself to post them… all in a row. :)

I have most of the ideas already in my head…the problem is that I am also trying (furiously) to finish all of my orders before Christmas. I think I can, I think I can…

I have a super simple ornament today…it only took me about 20 minutes to make one of these. I’ve seen the idea of using fake snow inside an ornament before and I’ve always wanted to try it. It turns out that there are a lot of varieties of fake snow, and some of them look really…uh, fake. I finally found some that I liked, one of them being “Buffalo Frosty Snow.”

(UPDATE: This type of artificial snow is really hard to find now. I’ve seen it on Etsy and eBay though. Just go to either of those sites and do a search for “Buffalo Frosty Snow.”)

By itself though, it’s a little plain:

fill glass ornament with fake snow

So I decided to paint some little dots on the outside to resemble falling snow… I used Folk Art acrylic paint in Wicker White.

use white paint to make snowflakes

I painted the dots on the top half of the ornament, kind of haphazardly, and some a little bigger than others…

paint white dots on glass for snow

And then I decided I wanted a little more sparkle, so I added some crystal rhinestones. (tweezers really help here.)

glue rhinestones to ornament

I added some tiny glass seed beads around the top of the hanger wire before putting it back into the cap at the top of the ornament…isn’t this cute?

snow and rhinestone christmas ornament

The other snow I really liked was the Buffalo Snow Flurries…this one is really fine and glittery, and it looks so pretty inside the glass ornament. (p.s. Make sure you turn off your ceiling fan before you start trying to add it to your ornament. Just how would I think to mention that? Well, I now have the only snow capped craft room in Florida.)

For this one I used pearl rhinestones instead of silver, and I made a pearl hanger for the top:

snow filled clear glass christmas ornament

The hanger is easy to make…just thread the beads you’d like onto an eyepin, and cut off the excess using wire cutters, leaving a little less than 1/2″ after the last bead:

make beaded hanger for ornament

Bend the tail at a 90 degree angle with needle nosed pliers…

bend the end of eyepin

And then bend it back the opposite way, around the end of the pliers, forming a loop:

form loop with eyepin

Open up a large jumpring (I like to use these for ornament hangers because they are pretty strong), and slide on the beaded eyepin:

attach beaded eyepin to jumpring

Then you can thread the wire from the ornament cap through the other end of your eyepin:

attach beaded eyepin to ornament hanger

Done! Quick, easy and elegant…

handmade glass snow globe ornament

 

 

22 Comments

  1. Pat Atkisson on December 12, 2011 at 8:16 am

    Hi, as always, very pretty. Question, is the snow in the glass ball attached in place, or does it just move around in the globe if you shake it like a snow globe????

    • ornamentgirl on December 12, 2011 at 8:23 am

      It’s not attached…it can be shaken around. Hmmm…maybe I should have also added water. :D

  2. isaiah43123 on December 12, 2011 at 8:28 am

    Simple. Elegant. Beautiful.

  3. Printable Christmas games on December 12, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    Hi………………
    Stunning sharing………
    I love that one ornament which you share really that look awesome.
    You have don a great job.
    Keep it up.

  4. […] some fake snow, some glue and rhinestones and some beads to finish it up. I found this over at Things that Sparkle blog. It’s easy and adds a few more ornaments to your tree…and I’ll be back with […]

  5. Elaine on January 1, 2012 at 12:16 am

    Love the look, got lost on the hook! light and airy, I love snow and I’m also from FL hello neighbor!

    • ornamentgirl on January 1, 2012 at 3:23 am

      Howdy, neighbor! I loved the snowy look, too…reminds me of up north, where I am from originally! (though I do NOT miss the cold!)

  6. joyroy on August 7, 2012 at 10:29 pm

    It’s very unique and beautiful , I will try myself To make it

  7. Ruth Carlson on August 18, 2012 at 11:54 pm

    That Buffalo Snow is no longer available…………….

    • Jennifer on October 5, 2012 at 12:08 pm

      Is there another “snow” that we could use?

  8. INGRID on October 18, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    MY DEAR YOU HAVE THE MOST BEUTIFULL SITE I EVER SEEEN TREGARDING THIS KIND OF DECORATION I ALSO DECORATE GLOBS SPHERES AND ALL KIND OF STUFF FOR CHRISTMAS !=X YOU VERY MUCH FOR OPORTUNITY TO SEE THAT I M NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS HOBBBY BEST REGARDS INGRID

  9. Pony on November 27, 2012 at 10:16 am

    I just went and picked up all the stuff to make these today. They’re so cute! And I got both of the Buffalo snows that you used at Michael’s, so I don’t know why someone said you can’t get them.

    I used a funnel to get the snow in, but I think the old scoop and stuff method would have been just as easy. The snow doesn’t go through the funnel very well. I had to use a stick to cram it through. hehe.

    So anyway- thank you for the great tutorial- I love your site! :)

  10. Erna on August 3, 2013 at 11:20 am

    Love your gift of creating!! Can’t wait to get started on these ornaments; they are adorable!! Thank you!!!

  11. Sandi on November 23, 2013 at 12:54 am

    Instead of buying funnels you can take a sheet of copy paper and roll it into a funnel shape. Take tape and tape it, so it can hold its shape. Cut a hole at the bottom to what ever size you need. The one thing I did is make a paper funnel for each glitter or snow you are using. I found out that you can not use it for every color glitter. Some glitter sticks to the sides and you do not want to get glitter in the snow.

  12. Dawn K on December 4, 2014 at 1:25 am

    How many ornaments do you estimate one bag (5.25 quarts) of buffalo snow will fill? I want to do this with my class, will need to do 30 ornaments…

  13. Allison on December 19, 2014 at 12:14 am

    I love these! I have glass ornaments and a BIG bag of snow with no ideas – this is perfect! :) Time to try my hand at jewelry making tools though. Your blog made me laugh too. Ceiling fan on and snow flying everywhere… that was me yesterday.

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  15. kim ford on December 20, 2016 at 1:48 am

    I love the look of the snowflake that is on the website. Mom ow==wona

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  19. […] some fake snow, some glue and rhinestones and some beads to finish it up. I found this over at Things that Sparkle blog. It’s easy and adds a few more ornaments to your tree…and I’ll be back with […]

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