Christmas Craft Challenge 2010 - Day 10

December 10th 2010


Sequin Baubles


As any scrapbooker or crafter would probably attest, you can never have enough "bling" at Christmas. Today I blinged out some polystyrene balls with lots of sequins & beads.

Basic Instructions:

1. Paint polystyrene ball with 2 coats of silver paint. This is optional but I thought it would look better than seeing plain white in any gaps.
2. Wrapped ribbon around diameter of ball then again at a perpendicular angle. Create a loop of ribbon at the top, long enough to slip over the branch of a Christmas Tree. (Except for multi-coloured bauble which only has a loop for a tie)
3. Artistically cover the ball in sequins and beads held in place with either glue or bead pins. Birch Haberdashery & craft now produce a special short "Sequin & Bead Pin".These are the normal diameter of a pin but are only 13mm in length. They are available in Steel Nickel & Copper? plated. I found them in Spotlight with all the pins & needles. They are perfect as they don't go too far into the polystyrene ball, unlike normal pins.
4. Hang on your tree to decorate.

Blue - Ribbon to divide into quarters. All quarters are filled with light blue stars and highlighted in the middle of each quarter with dark blue flowers. All sequins held with beads on top. The stars are sequins I inherited from my late Grandmother, so must be at least 30 - 40 years old if not older. I really enjoyed being able to use something that will forever remind me of my heritage.

Purple - Opposite quarters with dark purple stars as above and the other 2 with transparent mauve round cup sequins. All held in place with clear beads.

Mulit-Coloured - Multi-coloured 10mm cup sequins, held in place by only a pin, no bead.

Black/Silver - Opposite quarters with a flat cut 10mm black faceted sequins. Other quarters have flat cut 10mm flat silver sequins. The outer ring are held in place with a bead on the pin. The inner sequins have a bead both above and below the sequin for added dimension.


These were really easy to make though someone time consuming. I would highly recommend them as an activity for older children to make, though patience and the sharp pins may be an issue.