Easy and pretty gold-leaf monogrammed glass ornament...

The thing I love most about glass ornaments, is that you can do some many things with them to customize them.You can fill them full of glitter,photos,sheet music shreds, fake snow,lunch meat etc. Pretty much anything you can shove in through the top opening can make it a pretty cool ornament.

This time I decided to play with metallic paint,stickers and gold leafing.

It was really fun and very easy.I just love how gold leafing looks.

And the best part of this project is you can pretty much stop at any step and you have 3 fab different custom ornaments!

You just start with these clear glass ornaments from the craft store.

Carefully remove the top. I cut myself on one,the inside lip isn’t very smooth,so this is a good grown-up task.

I set mine back in the container and poured in metallic craft paint,Once I had poured in about 1/3 of the bottle,

Carefully pick it up and swirl the paint around inside. It slooooooowly moves around the inside and covers as you turn it.

It’s kind of like watching an el-cheapo lava lamp.

After the entire inside is covered,I leave mine upside down for a few hours to let the excess drip out.

By doing it in a disposable cup, I can save the paint by poking a hole in the bottom of the cup later and let it drip back into the bottle.

Let it dry 24-48 hours upright.

You can stop here for ornament number 1 and just have a pretty colored metallic ornament!

Next add a letter sticker. The sticker aisle has a ton in great fonts.

And I found these. Not super holiday-ish in themselves, but they would work!

I also thought I would try this deer head sticker and I tried some trees too.

You can stop here for ornament number 2!

To take the next step, and do the actual gold leafing, you paint the metal leaf adhesive glue, sometimes called sizing ,all over the surface. The while the adhesive is still wet, remove your sticker. I used a straight pin to lift the edge and peel sloooowly.

Metal leaf adhesive is crazy sticky when it dries. If you wait to pull the sticker off once it’s dry, it might stick together and pull off of the ornament.

Your adhesive needs to dry on some aluminum foil about 30 minutes.Once it’s dry and really sticky,press your sheet of gold or silver leafing to the ornament surface. It’s very delicate and might tear a bit. That’s o.k., You can pick up the pieces and stick them back on.Try not to get your fingers on the parts with the adhesive, Your finger oils can make it less sticky.

Just keep adding the leaf to any gaps. It’s very light and feathery, so be gentle with it.

Once it’s full of leafing,

use a soft brush to burnish the surface and remove the excess. The leafing won’t stick to the places without adhesive. So you’ll see if you missed any spots. I like the bit of color poking through.

Then you can hang it!

Ornament number 3!

I also tried adding some silver and gold together, it turned out pretty with a metallic marble finish.

It ended up really pretty!

Except my stag head ornament did not turn out like I thought. Ornament fail.

I did not take into account the clear edges around the sticker. I should have trimmed around the antlers.

I made Mr.Krabs.

I have Krab’s on my tree…..I know…..riiiight?

They can’t all be winners people.

I also tried some trees and a metallic paint pen. And I colored the cap with the paint pen as well.

It was a fun project and they are so pretty. I think I am going to buy a bunch on clearance in a few weeks and have them ready to do for next year. it would be a great way to do an entire tree of custom ornaments or do gift ornaments for about a dollar a piece!