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!
32 Comments
First let me say, I am so excited to have participated in this blog hop with you – I hadn’t visited your blog before but I will now add you on Pinterest! Nice to meet you :) I have always wanted to try these glue gun design projects but I never thought they would work, I like your idea to trace them to make the patterns though. I think my biggest problem is I don’t free hand very well, so having a pattern to follow would definitely help. I’m hopping away to pin this now :) Great work!
Yes, tracing a pattern was the key for me! I tried to free hand a Christmas tree and it turned into a weird lopsided thing… haha! I’m so glad I participated in this blog hop too! Thanks for the Pinterest love!
So cool! I would have never thought to do this! I bought a hot glue gun a couple years ago, and it is seriously one of my favorite things now!
Thank you! I didn’t know what I was missing not having a glue gun in my life for so long! haha!
Oh my goodness what an awesome idea! I would have never thought to do anything like this! I love that you can pretty much change the design so that each ornament is just slightly different than the last. Such a fun project. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
Thank you, Teresa! I had so much fun making these! And yes, one of the best parts was how easy it is to glue “outside the lines” on purpose, and you end up with a different design!
Do you know that I totally just fell in love with you!?! I have a love affair with hot glue. hehe!
Haha! Thanks! My hot glue love has increased exponentially after doing this project too. Now I want to use it for EVERYTHING! :)
That’s really cool! I knew hot glue guns were awesome, but I never would have thought of making ornaments solely out of hot glue!
Thank so much, Rachel!
This is SO cool!! I need to try this! Thanks for sharing! :)
Thank you, Kaycee!! Let me know if you try it!
Parchment paper is like the greatest invention ever. And I can’t even think of the last time I used a glue gun, they didn’t have glitter glue back then!! I don’t craft much. ;)
I had NO idea how awesome parchment paper was! I honestly thought it was the same thing as wax paper, haha! Clearly I don’t bake/cook much. ;) Thank you for stopping by!
Ummm…This is AWESOME! I’ve never thought about making my decorations with a hot glue gun and I use mine all the time! I’m “finally” collecting ornaments for our tree and i could definitely make some of these! Thanks for the great DIY!
Thank you, Savannah! I’d love to see what you make!
These are so pretty!!! No offense but mine would turn out like your practice pieces. :( But I think I might be able to manage the poinsettia. Such a great idea!!! Now I know what glitter hot glue is for!
Thank you!! And you should definitely give it a try! I do think the poinsettia was the easiest since there’s no swirly details, but it’s one of my favorites!
How creative is this! I would have never thought to try this. I’ll definitely have to give this a try!
Thanks, Jenn! I’d love to see what you come up with if you make some!
What a clever idea!! They turned out so great! It’s been so fun being a part of this blog hop and seeing all these wonderful ideas!
Hi Marissa! I agree, this blog hop is so much fun! Thank you for stopping by!
What a fun idea! This blog hop has been so much fun – I love discovering new & awesome blogs like yours!
Jenna
xo
Thank you, Jenna! I am loving this blog hop too. Everyone is so creative!
1. you’re adorable, and I’ve never smiled so much while reading a tutorial
2. these are adorable, and if I keep this page open I think I may be able to create a couple of cute ornaments, myself!
thank you for sharing!
xotawni
Aww shucks, thank you! :) You should totally give it a try! I’d love to see what you make!
These are beautiful!! I didn’t even realize there was colored — let alone glitter — hot glue :)
Thanks so much, Lora! I actually saw the glitter glue sticks when I first bought my glue gun and wondered why anyone would use it. Haha! It clearly left an impression on me though. :)
What a fabulous idea! These turned out so classy!
Thank you, Susannah! I’m so happy with how they turned out!
How did I not know that glue sticks came in colors, let alone with GLITTER??? What a great and inexpensive way to make Christmas ornaments. Thank you for sharing this tutorial with the blog hop! :)
These are super cute and so simple!! My younger siblings would totally love this idea. Thank you for sharing!