Pearl and crystal ornaments.

I love Christmas. It's a beautiful time. And decorating has started!

I'm not keen on red or green. By not keen I mean I really don't like them at all! So Christmas is sparkly mainly. Or clear. That's my joke that my favourite colour is sparkly or clear as it's really true. But you can choose whatever colours you personally love for this project.

Use cheap basic decorations which you can see at the bottom right of the picture.

It's easiest if you place your pearls or crystals in a small bowl. Work fairly quickly and apply craft glue all over your ball, not too thick or it will run. Then simply sit this into the bowl of beads and I use a teaspoon to gently cover the glue. Once you have a fair few on I start patting them into place with my finger. When you get pretty good coverage I start adding individual beads to fill spaces. At this stage they will slide around to move and allow more and more to go on until your'e satisfied it's covered well. 

Let dry and then add a strip of tulle or ribbon to make a soft bow. I like tulle as it looks soft and romantic. And costs about a cent!

I did some pearl and one just crystal. There are tow colours in the pearls, a white and a cream. I like the cream best. I had left overs and did one using them which gave me a mix of pearl and crystal and it looks really nice! Left overs often turn out the best!

They are really sparkly and I'm thinking when they are next to lights will be even more so!

Pearls come in all kinds of colours. Now I'm imagining soft pink or baby blue ones! 

Cradled in tissue paper in a little box these would make a gorgeous gift for someone having their first Christmas tree or just a special ornament from a friend.

The thing is to have fun. Possibly you have beads around to use. Imagine making one from  broken jewellery that you might have that has been in the family. It could become an heirloom.