Vintage Santa Ornament

This ornament idea was inspired by all the vintage Santa ornaments I love to look at but are beyond my price range. I'm talking about those beautifully made ornaments that grace the tall Christmas trees inside upscale garden nursery shops.
I hope you will enjoy my tutorial and be inspired to make your own. :)

 Materials used for this project:

• Smoothfoam 3" ball.
• From The Robins Nest- Green Glittered Chipboard, Gold Dusted and Red Dew Drops.
• Miniature Santa image- mine is from small printed Kleenex.
• Turbo Tacky and Tombo glue.
• Silver metallic paint
• Gold glimmer spritz
• Cracker box piece.
• Tiny silver decorations and fine iridescent glitter.
• Silver craft wire, Gesso, 100 grit sandpaper, dimensional glaze,  glitter glue, tube connector from a glow bracelet, pencil, craft knife, scissors, emboss tool, melon ball scooper, paper plate, clear spray sealer, foam brush, craft mat and disposable cup.

 Begin by drawing a oval shape with a pencil onto your Smoothfoam ball.

 Cut along the line of the pencil with your craft knife. Then score the cuts as shown from line to line. Use the craft knife as a lever to 'pop' out pieces of the Smoothfoam. Once you have all your pieces out, finish carving the oval hole with your melon ball scooper. The sturdiness of Smoothfoam will not crumble while you carve.

 Next, trim your Santa image from the tissue. It will be 3 ply. Remove just one sheet of tissue paper. Leaving the Santa image with a backing. Glue your image onto the undecorated side of your cracker box packaging. (Sorry my middle image on top is reversed!) Place your Santa image inside your hollow ball for sizing, trim image as desired to fit. - I trimmed off the feet.

 Place your ball face down on the open end. Paint with gesso. Let dry. Then go over the ball lightly with the sandpaper. This will smooth out any ridges as well as prime the ball for painting.
First paint the ball with metallic silver craft paint. Let dry. Then spritz the ball with gold glimmer spray. Dab off with a paper napkin to give the antiqued burnished gold effect. Let dry before spraying one coat of clear spray sealer.

 Cut your bracelet connector to size. Twist a bit of wire as shown for the ornament top. Poke a hole with your embossing tool at the top of the Smoothfoam ball. Fill with the Tacky glue. Add a bit of glue to the top and place the plastic tube piece. Insert wire piece. 

 Place ball as shown in a disposable cup. Coat the inside of the ball with the Tacky glue. Let it start to set for a few minutes. Then add your silver decorations and iridescent glitter. Really mix in up with your finger. Give it a final dusting with your glitter. Leave in the cup while you cut 5 small trees from The Robins Nest glitter chipboard. Place trees inside the ball. The still wet glittery glue mixture will hold them in place.

 Accent your Santa with a little bit of glitter glue and then the dimensional glaze.  When this has set, add a loop of wire (as shown) to the back of the Santa with tape.

 Place your Santa inside the ball, pushing the wire (prongs) into the bottom and some into the Tacky glue.
Place a thin line of Tombo glue to the rim of the ball and carefully place The Robins Nest gold dusted dew drops.

 When the everything is dry and set, carefully place The Robins Nest red dew drops at the top and around the outside of the  ornament.

Now you have your own Vintage inspired Santa Ornament!
Isn't it pretty?