Christmas Crafts – Recycle Old Christmas Ornaments

EXERCISE CAUTION

Materials needed:

Old Christmas Ornaments Large Bowl Dishwashing Liquid Paper Towels Small Scrap of Fabric Bleach

Directions:

1.To remove the color from the outside of the ornament, immerse it in some warm soapy water. Let the ornament stand several minutes and then rub it with your fingers or a paper towel. Rinse thoroughly.

2.To remove the silver from the inside of the ornament, place a small scrap of fabric inside the ornament and add a small amount of bleach and agitate until clear. Rinse the ornaments with clean water and allow to dry. The bleach can be reused for all ornaments necessary.

After the Ornaments are Clean

Some great ideas for decorating the old ornaments when they are clean.

** Fill the ornament with sparkling box stuffing or potpourri.

** Use a gold, silver, red, or green paint pin to write on the ornament. Designs can also be made on the outside of the ornament with the special paint point paint.

** Pour some paint inside the ornament and roll it around until the ornament is coated. Turn the ornament upside down and let the extra paint drain into a container for reuse. Several colors give a rainbow effect or layers can be made by letting a paint dry before adding another color.

** “Metallic-Look” or “Stone-Look” paints make a beautiful ornament. The paint inside leaves the ornament always shiny. These ornaments are beautiful when grouped together in several colors in a basket or a large bowl. Let the paint dry completely before reinserting the top of the ornament.

** A glitter glue gun stick can be used to decorate the outside of the ornament.

** Cut .05 weight circles of acetate that will fit into the ornaments. Use markers to draw on the circles or use a color or black and white copy of a photograph and glue it to the acetate circle with a glue stick. Insert the circle into the ornament by rolling it around a pencil to get it into the ornament and then use the pencil to adjust the circle once it is inside the ornament.

** Use a glue gun or a heavy regular glue to attach jewels, strings of beads or pearls, ribbon roses and bows, or anything you can come up with to the outside of the ornament.

Note: New ornaments can also be bought when they are on sale and used to make these ideas.