If you’re looking for a simple but fun DIY Christmas craft project, this is the one for you! Decorating your own baubles is a great activity to do by yourself on a cold winter’s afternoon, or with children on a rainy day. You can make it as simple or intricate as you like AND it’s a cost effective way to add luxury sparkle. Usually you’d be paying a high price for diamante baubles, but by making your own you will save money and have bespoke rhinestone decorations to boast about!
We bought some plain baubles from Tesco, a bargain at only £3 for 15! There are endless possible ways to embellish a bauble with rhinestones, so we’ve experimented with a few different techniques and now we’re going to show you how easy it is! Here’s our guide on how to create this pretty snowfall inspired bauble:
Simple step by step guide.
- Firstly, make sure you have all of your tools to hand, and you’ve prepared a clean and flat surface area to work on. We recommend working near a window during the daytime so you have the natural light, this is a lot easier than working under artificial lighting. The tools we’re using are:
- Crystal Katana pick up tool – perfect for picking up rhinestones and placing them neatly down onto the surface of the bauble. We love the Katana because it is comfortable to hold, has a precision tip at the other end for accurate positioning, it’s durable and can pick up almost any embellishment. Today we’ll be using it to pick up crystals, pearls and cupchain so it’s the only tool we’d want to use!
- Gem Tac glue – this glue is ideal for this project as it is easy to work with and dries crystal clear.
- Applicator Syringe and Tip – this is such a cheap and quick way to apply your glue neatly. We would always recommend using this tool as it minimizes glue waste and mess.
2. Secondly, lay out the flatback crystals and pearls you want to use. Here we have used a mixture of Preciosa Non Hotfix Rhinestones, Preciosa Flatback Pearls, Zodiac Rhinestones and Zodiac Snowflakes.
3. Start by filling the applicator syringe with Gem Tac glue and screwing on the tip. Apply the glue to the bauble by gently squeezing the plunger down to release the glue in small dots. Leave for a few seconds to get tacky. You can do any design you like, here we have chosen to use a combination of crystals, pearls and some snowflake shapes to create a snowfall effect.
4. Using the katana, pick up the rhinestone or pearl (in this example we are using pearls first) and place it down onto the first glue dot. Don’t work about any glue seeping out, it dries completely clear. Keep going until you have covered all the glue dots with your chosen embellishment.
5. Keep applying glue, then embellishments, glue, then embellishments in your chosen pattern. For a pretty, wintery style we have used Preciosa white and light blue flatback pearls and Clear rhinestones to create sparkly rings around the top of the bauble.
6. To finish the design, we’ve added some Zodiac clear crystal snowflakes scattered on the bottom part of the bauble. Allow your creation to dry completely before hanging on your tree, we recommend a drying time of at least 6 hours but preferably 24 hours to ensure the glue dries solidly.
More design ideas.
There are so many ways to decorate a simple bauble using crystal embellishments. You could create festive scenes or images such as a Christmas tree, Santa, snowflake, snowman, reindeer etc. You could add subtle sparkle by just dotting a few rhinestones around the top and bottom, you could create swirl patterns, write a name or create a personalized bauble by embellishing the initial of a loved one. Another way to add some sparkle is by gluing on crystal cupchain or flatback shapes. This really enhances any design and makes the finished product look more high end. As I said, the possibilities are endless! Here are some more ideas for you to try:
