This fun and easy Christmas craft is great for both kids and adults! Hang these beaded glass Christmas ornaments on the Christmas tree or in the window. Then watch how the lights shine through, creating beautiful and colourful reflections.
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What type of beads are used to make these ornaments?
The “beads” used to make these Christmas ornaments are not typical beads with a hole in the middle. These glass beads are also called “flat glass marbles” or “flat glass gems”. You can use them as decoration in vases or candleholders, but they’re also great for crafting! If you don’t have glass beads you can use any other type of flat, smooth glass (like sea glass) to make these ornaments. You can also use regular plastic beads (or regular glass beads, with a hole in the middle). Clear or translucent beads are better since the Christmas lights shine so nicely through them.
What size cookie cutters are used to make glass bead ornaments?
Larger cookie cutters (3.5 inches to 5 inches across) work best for these ornaments. But it will really depend on the shape and the size of your gems. We used 3 inch cookie cutters to make our star and ornament ball glass bead ornaments. It was a bit tight, but it still worked. Our Christmas tree cookie cutter was 3-1/2 inches tall. This is a nice size that allows you to fit in a good amount of beads and create a recognizable shape, without making the ornament too heavy.
How many glass beads do I need per ornament?
The exact number of beads needed will depend on the size of your beads and the size and shape of your cookie cutter. But here’s the amount of beads we used per ornament, to give you a general idea of how many you might need:
Christmas Tree: 11 beads Star: 11 beads Ball ornament: 15 beads
Can I use tin foil instead of plastic wrap?
We found that plastic wrap worked much better than tin foil for this project. We used tin foil to make a mold for our glass bead heart suncatcher and it worked well for that project. But for this project, we weren’t able to get the foil smooth and flat around the shapes of the cookie cutters. So instead of coming off the foil nicely, the glue got stuck in all the little creases so it was really hard to peel them off. And they just looked messy in the end.
Use dollar store supplies to create these beautiful glass bead Christmas ornaments. Hang them in the Christmas tree, or place them in the window as a Christmas suncatcher!
Here’s even more DIY Christmas ornament ideas:
Resin Ornament
Bow Tie Pasta Ornaments
Scandinavian Star Ornament
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
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