Merry Christmas Eve!  Around Thanksgiving I was out shopping with my high school friend, and she kept migrating towards decorative items with the letter “K” for her holiday decorations – her new last name.  And anything glittery.  Put these things together, and I knew the perfect thing to make her and her husband Chris for Christmas – a glittery laser cut ornament!

Unassembled ornament

How they fit together, because a picture is better than my words at this point!

I could have made a simple flat ornament, but I wanted it to have a little more depth.  I made two flat pieces that slot together to create a ball shape.  I personalized these by making the emphasizing their initial (K), and spelling out their names on the cross pieces.

The prototype is the unpainted one.  It has a couple problems.  First off, I didn’t choose a good font – too many burnt thin bits.  Secondly, the logical arrangement of the names doesn’t really work in the round; it makes it a have a front and a back, and the names only read correctly from the front.  I wanted them correct as the ornament rotates; so in the final version I flipped “Chris” do it would be correct as it turned.

Prototype with finihed piece – Chris looks backward from this angle, but as the piece turns, it makes more sense

The second important part of this venture was glitter!  I went into thinking that I would just buy glitter spray and be done with it, but at $7.99 a can it was a bit too much (I wanted two colors and needed to base colors.  I was not spending $30 for paint supplies!)  So I got one spray to try out, and craft paint for the rest.  I also painted the bamboo prior too cutting, so I wouldn’t have to worry about paint mucking up the small spaces.

Krylon Glitter Blast spray in diamond dust ($7.99) on the left, Red Glitter “Craft Twinkles” paint from DecoArt ($1.99) on the right.

White sparkles – subtle