How to Make Personalized Glitter Ornaments

Learn how to make personalized glitter ornaments in no time! It’s a really easy and inexpensive gift idea!

Ever since my husband and I started dating over a decade ago, we’ve been adding ornaments to our Christmas tree, and we make a point to add at least one new one each year.

We usually pick them up on vacations, grab a cute Hallmark one for an important milestone or occasion, or recently, I’ve been making them (see this or this or this for proof).

Well, I felt like I needed some more glitter in my life (don’t we all), so I decided this year I was also going to give making my own glittered variety a shot, and of course I would have to slap some personalization on there too to finish them off.

And you know what?

They could not be easier to make!

Here I’ll walk you through how to make your very own DIY personalized glitter ornaments!

How to Make Personalized Glitter Ornaments

Personalized Glitter Ornament Supplies

• Clear ornament (I used plastic but you can use glass too)
• Fine glitter
• Polycrylic
• Mini craft funnels
• Silhouette Cameo
• Vinyl

ORNAMENTS: I chose some 3.75″ clear plastic disc (M&M-shaped) ornaments since my son and niece are in the Godzilla stage of toddlerhood, and I’d like for these ornaments to last longer than ten minutes on the tree.

Plus, since they’re disc-shaped and not completely round, personalizing them would be a breeze!

Vinyl likes to stick to flat surfaces much more easily than round ones.

GLITTER: I used a colorful set of fine glitter since I wasn’t sure what my ornaments were going to look like just yet. I like having options, ya know?

POLYCRYLIC: The “glue” that I’d be using for these glitter ornaments is none other than my trusty can of polycrylic!

I sure am getting some mileage out of this little can of wonder as I frequently use it on wooden sign projects, like my family’s growth chart ruler.

Other glue options for glitter ornaments:

• This specific floor cleaner (really)
• Water-based polyurethane
• Glitter It

MINI CRAFT FUNNELS: I also picked up a set of two mini craft funnels for dirt cheap.

And let me tell you what: these funnels are the bee’s knees, no joke!

I would consider them an almost must-have because they made this task a breeze and nearly mess-free.

Waaay better than using a homemade sheet-of-paper-funnel for adding sand to an ornament like I did here.

PERSONALIZATION: I’m using vinyl to personalize these ornaments with my son and niece’s names because I’m obsessed with my Silhouette Cameo, but you could also use scrapbook stickers or even paint markers instead of vinyl.

You can also add any additional embellishments with bows, ribbon, tulle, rhinestones, etc.

How to Make Personalized Glitter Ornaments

This fun and festive project is super easy!

I’ll be going into detail below on how to make glitter ornaments, but here’s the quick TL;DR tutorial:

1. Prepare your ornament by removing the hanging top and prep your work space
2. Pour in the polycrylic “glue” and coat the inside of the ornament, then pour out excess
3. Add the glitter and coat the inside of the ornament, then pour out excess
4. Let dry
5. Add personalization to one or both sides of the ornament
6. Reinsert hanging top and your DIY personalized glitter ornament is ready for gifting and/or hanging!

Step 1: Prepare the Ornament & Work Space

The first thing I did was prep my ornament by removing the hanging top and setting it aside.

Then, to make things easier to handle, I grabbed a little dipping bowl and a paper towel and set the ornament inside so it would stay propped upright.

Ahhh, if only we had more than two hands, right?

I then popped in one of the mini craft funnels in the top in preparation for my “glue.”

Step 2: Add the Polycrylic “Glue” & Coat the Inside of the Ornament

Now it was time to add my “glue” to the inside of the ornament.

I first gave the can of polycrylic a little shake, popped the top off, then poured a small amount into the ornament.

It doesn’t really matter how much you add, so don’t stress.

You can always add more if you need some, and if you add too much, it’ll just get drained anyway. No biggie.

Next up, I just started moving the ornament so the polycrylic swirled around and coated all areas of the inside, including the neck…

…then, once I had a nice, even coat of polycrylic over the entire inside surface, I drained most of the excess back into the can.

And don’t worry about any air bubbles that you might see at this point.

They should all pop once the glitter is added.

At this point, I stood the ornament upside down on a paper towel to drain the rest, which only took a couple minutes.

NOTE: If you’re going to do this, I would recommend either folding your paper towel in half or using multiple ones or even a paper plate.

The polycrylic dries pretty quickly, and it starts to make a sticky mess on your table. Yuck!

Luckily, though, it’s easy to clean.

Step 3: Add the Glitter and Coat the Inside of the Ornament

Now it’s time to add the glitter! Wahoo!

This particular ornament is going to be for my niece, Elena, so I chose a bright and beautiful shade of pink.

I popped the ornament back in my bowl-and-paper-towel stand and inserted the second of my mini craft funnels (the clean non-polycrylic-covered one).

Then I poured in some glitter.

Same thing goes here as with the poly: it doesn’t matter how much you add.

You can always add more if you need it and will just drain out and salvage any excess.

I ended up using about 1/3 of the bottle of pink glitter for this ornament.

Once again, I swirled the ornament around until the entire inner surface area was coated in glittery pink beautifulness.

It’s looking so pretty already!

To get a coating over the neck, I placed the ornament’s opening against my palm and gave it a nice shaking until everything was covered in glitter.

To drain out the excess glitter, I placed the tube in the glass bowl (to help contain any spillage), inserted the mini craft funnel, turned the ornament upside down above it, then gave it a few taps.

Also, luckily there wasn’t a strong odor left from the polycrylic.

I wasn’t sure if there would be an aroma lingering since this was an indoor project, but it’s not noticeable at all.

Wahoo!

Step 4: Let the Ornament Dry

Once the ornament was fully drained of the excess glitter, I set it aside, leaving the cap off so it could dry.

Step 5: Add Vinyl Personalization to One or Both Sides of the Ornament

The next step was adding some personalization to the now-glittered ornament using vinyl decals.

(You can learn all about how to make vinyl decals here.)

For this step, I fired up my Silhouette Cameo and cut out my niece’s name in this swirly font in some pretty mint vinyl.

I then added some transfer paper and used the hinge method to apply it to my ornament.

Once again, the ornament being disc-shaped really allowed for an easy and smooth application.

(You can read more details about the hinge method here, here, here, or here.  It’s a sure-fire way to apply vinyl perfectly every time!)

Step 6: Replace the Hanging Top to the Ornament

Now, all that’s left is carefully replacing the hanging top back on your ornament.

Pay special attention to not accidentally scraping off any of the newly-added glitter with the top’s wires as you reinsert them down the ornament’s neck.

And with that, your DIY personalized glitter ornament is complete and ready for gifting and/or hanging on your Christmas tree!

My Final DIY Personalized Glitter Ornaments!

And here’s Elena’s final ornament!

Not too shabby, especially for a first-timer.

The pictures really don’t do the glitter justice. It just sparkles and shines in the light!

I was truly amazed at how well the polycrylic acted as a glue and provided such a strong and even coating of glitter.

These ornaments are SO easy to make and personalize, and not to mention super inexpensive!

Since Elena’s ornament turned out so perfectly (and was so incredibly quick and easy to make!), I decided to knock out one for my son as well.

(And in case you’re interested, the font for his name is Mixtape Mike and the initial and year on the backside is called Pharmacy.)

Great DIY Gift Idea!

Talk about an easy gift idea that everyone would love!

I envision lots of these ornaments being made in my future, especially when Rowan grows up and needs gifts for his friends, classmates, or teachers.

They can be made in any color and personalized in any way…perfect gifts for large groups, or even just that one special person!

I just made another personalized glitter ornament as a gift for my hair stylist!

***Glitter Ornament: 2021 UPDATE!***

Here’s a little update on how these DIY glitter ornaments have held up over all these years…

GREAT!

They look just the same as they did when I first packed them away all those years ago.

The polycrylic glue and glitter has held up wonderfully, even being stored in a hot and humid Alabama garage. :)

More Glittering Fun!

I’ve also used this method (and another one…it was an experiment!) to upcycle some dollar store vases into things of beauty.

Check out how to make glittered vases here!

More Festive DIY Christmas Ideas!

Check out my Project Gallery for lots of other holiday projects, including these!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Merry Christmas!