Ornaments

For the third year Buby has worked on ornaments for family + friends. He does it a little each day over the course of December. I can see the pride he feels when he creates something for someone and then gives it away. And of course I love to see the process.


One of this year's projects was inspired by my friend Erika. We were at her house for a play date one day when I spotted a handful of stunning yellow + orange ornaments on her dining room table. I lusted over the vivid hues, and she said she'd just made them with her daughter. I was impressed. She promised it was something a 3 year old could do with little help.


The following week we snagged a dozen clear glass ornaments on clearance at Michaels. Buby's art studio is always stocked with paint and brushes, so back at home I simply lined up a ton of paint bottles and carefully took out the tops of each ornament and set them aside. Buby assigned one, two or three colors to each ball ~ often mixing acrylic with glitter glue.


I held the ornament for him while he poured the paint in. Then he put the ornament inside a Ziploc sandwich bag {to prevent splatter and possible injury if the glass happened to shatter}, plugged the hole with his finger just in case, and shook as vigorously and gently as he could. Buby was amazed with the results and so was I. Very elegant. We left them to dry for a few days, wrote 2008 on some with puffy white fabric paint, and cut pretty ribbon for all to hang.







I liked them so much I kept three for our own tree. Buby also painted porcelain snowflakes for his teachers and a red + yellow snowman for my parents with "BUBY" in red glitter stickers across the front. That was my favorite ornament of all!







See the mostly clear one above with 4 white stripes? I saved that one to encapsulate a teeny love note for My Sweets every Christmas Eve. From me. That'll be fun.