Look, Something Shiny!

LONG have I been teased about my pack rat tendencies from all who know me. The joke (on me) growing up was always for someone to say "look, something shiny!" whenever I would get distracted. The reasoning (of course), was that as a pack rat, I was incapable of passing by anything shiny without focusing on it & becoming distracted from my original train of thought. My dad's a biologist -- these sorts of jokes simply can't be helped. :-) {Notice I'm not denying the dominance of the pack rat gene, but simply telling the tale. LOL.}

Ok, so, yes I know it is January. But I've had tons (read: literally, actual TONS) of these glass ornaments sitting around my house since after-Christmas clearance sales in 2006. The time has long passed to make them into something and give them away!

These are the standard, super-easy glitter & reinker ornaments. I made 18 of them one night last week. Still have pl-en-ty to do but it's a start! I like the big ones and the icicles the best.

There are many, many tutorials out there on how to make these babies, so I won't go into excruciating detail (also I didn't take any pictures during this last round of ornament-making, so at this time I'm only posting text directions). Perhaps I'll write up a quick one eventually, but for now if you need more info feel free to send me an e-mail or leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll get back to you.

Basic steps:

1. Rinse the inside of the ornaments out with rubbing alcohol to remove and residue that would cause the ink to not bond well to the inside of the glass. Drain and let dry.

2. Add 10 to 20 drops of ink from your reinkers into the ornaments. If the ink is a thicker consistency, add a few drops of water too. Swirl it around until the entire inside of the ornament is covered. Drain excess ink.

3. Add glitter and shake shake shake. Add more if needed to ensure that you get an even coating of glitter over the inside of the glass. Shake out excess glitter.

That's it! Try experimenting with different kinds of glitter and different ink/glitter color combos. Beware the very chunky/sequin-esque glitter, it doesn't make very nice ornaments. Ask me how I know (I had to at least TRY it!).