Hot Glue Gun Glitter Ornaments

It’s after Thanksgiving so it is now officially socially acceptable to start celebrating the Christmas season! Switch out all the seasonal decorations, put up your tree, and watch all the Hallmark Christmas movies (unless you’ve already been watching them since the beginning of November, like me).

To kick off my favorite holiday season I’ve joined with some other bloggers for a Creative Christmas Blog Hop (hosted by Teresa over at Crafty Wife), to share DIY crafty Christmas tutorials!

I’d only recently purchased a hot glue gun for some fall crafting (fabric pumpkins, fabric acorns, and pillow covers – oh my!) and decided to try my hand at making some snowflakes and ornaments out of glittery hot glue, and I have to say, I’m so happy with how they turned out!

Check out the photos and instructions below for a super easy and fun way to glitz and glitter up your home for the holidays!

**There are Amazon affiliate links below – if you click the link and make a purchase, I receive a small commission.**

Supplies:

• Hot glue gun
• Glitter hot glue sticks – you could also use regular clear hot glue sticks and sprinkle loose glitter over your designs, but I chose the less messy route
• Parchment paper – this is SUPER IMPORTANT – it is not the same as wax paper! I know, because I used wax paper first. Don’t be me.

Optional, but recommended supplies:

• Printed patterns to follow, or pens and paper to draw your own
• Small craft scissors to cut off the wayward strings of hot glue (although these pull off pretty easily)
• Craft jewels for some extra bling
• tape to keep your pattern designs in place

When I started experimenting for this project I actually used regular clear hot glue to practice so that I wouldn’t waste my precious glitter glue. I recommend that route if you’re a perfectionist like me and want to get a good squeeze technique down. My first few had a lot of starting and stopping “blobs” as I practiced the little details, but I had a lot of fun playing with the designs!

Easy directions:

• Get your patterns ready (if you choose to use them)
• Load your glue sticks, and heat up your glue gun!
• Use the parchment paper over the top of your patterns – I reused the same piece of parchment paper over and over for all these designs. Once the glue is dried, it just lifts right off!
• Ready. Set. Craft!

The first ornament I decided to make is a layered gold snowflake. I printed out a snowflake design, then colored in the lines with three different colors to mark the three pieces I wanted to create.

As you can see, I changed the design a bit – but that’s the beauty of it – you can do whatever you want!

After all three sections were dried, I used a dab of glue to attach the layers together, then added a few jewels, and voilà!

Next up, I used some wooden ornaments that I’d found in a craft store over the summer, and just put the parchment paper over the top, using them as templates.

After that, I went into full crazy-crafter mode and decided to try my hot-glue-gun-hand at some holly and a poinsettia! I’d already drawn out some patterns but wasn’t sure if I was going to make them or not.

I did all the outlining first, letting that dry before filling in any of the details on the holly leaves, and the full petals and leaves on the poinsettia. The berries should also be done one at a time, letting each dot harden up before you do the next one. If you get too much hot glue in one place it has a tendency to just ooze into an unshapely blob.

For the poinsettia, just like the layered snowflake, I waited until it was all dry, then used more hot glue to attach the two layers of petals together and to position the leaves onto the back. I am really proud of how they turned out!

Have you ever made any projects strictly out of hot glue? If not, you should give it a try. It’s really a great craft for everyone! I think my next project will be to take the clear “practice” ornaments and figure out a way to glitter them up and hang them in my windows for some winter fun!

Are you making anything crafty this holiday season? Let me know what you’re making – I’m always looking for more inspiration!