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CD Christmas Ornaments with Paint and Glitter

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How to Make CD Christmas Ornaments with paint and glitter. This is a fun and easy craft that yields beautiful results. Great creative activity for toddlers right through to tweens.

You’ll also love our CD Galaxy Ornaments with Old CDs.

We’ve been making tons of easy but beautiful handmade ornaments here in my daycare, and I’m really excited to show you our latest creation. We turned some old CDs and DVDs into gorgeous, glittery ornaments to hand on the Christmas tree.

And hang on to your hats, my lovelies….  We used GLITTER! Lots and lots of glitter! I know. What has come over me?

CD Christmas Ornaments with paint and glitter

If you’ve been following us for a while, know I’m a total glitter-phobe. Truly. The thought of crafting with loose glitter actually makes me a bit dizzy.  

Well, a few weeks ago, I had to kill over an hour in Michael’s Crafts (yeah, torture, I know…), and I guess being surrounded by all that dazzling, crafty goodness, I lost my senses for a moment.  

I threw caution to the wind, and I picked up a dozen or so teeny-tiny packets of glitter, thinking we MIGHT just give it a go here.

Sooo, last week, we took plunge, and you know what?

It was AWESOME!  It’s true!! What they say is actually true!!

Glitter DOES make everything better! Check it out! We made these gorgeous CD Christmas ornaments with paint and glitter!

painted and glittered cd christmas ornament hanging in tree

Using old CD’s and DVD’s for preschool crafts is a great way to keep your crafting costs down. Here are some more ways to use them for your Christmas crafts this year:

I actually think I’m over my fear of glitter now. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it was great! 

We used the super-fine glitter, so that might have helped. It didn’t go everywhere, and it didn’t get tracked all over the house like I thought it would. It was really a very pleasant experience!

Let me tell you how we made our beautiful CD ornaments.

painted and glittered cd christmas ornaments

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Supplies for CD Christmas Ornaments:

supplies for cd Christmas ornaments with paint and glitter

How we made our CD Christmas ornaments with paint and glitter:

The hooligans started out by choosing a few paint colours to work with, and they painted their cds.

Some chose to keep their colours separate, and some blended them all together.

I chose to dip my brush into a couple of colours at a time, and kind of swirl the brush tip on the CD.  This made a really pretty effect.

CDs painted with acrylics

After the acrylics had dried (I gave them a blast with the hair-dryer), the hooligans squeezed on a generous helping of glitter glue and brushed it all over their CDs.

The more the merrier here.  You want those disks good and sticky to ensure the real glitter stays put.

glitter glue and glitter on a cd

If you’re not keen to jump aboard the glitter-train, you could totally call it a finished project right here.  They looked great at this point, but there was no stopping us;  it was full steam ahead.  Next stop: Glitter-town.

The hooligans selected 3 or 4 packets of glitter each, and they quite liberally dusted their cds with the stuff.

Ooooh my!  Can you even believe this is even happening in my house right now?

glitter covered cd and table top

Then we tipped the CDs upside down, and tapped any loose glitter off.

I’ll add a couple of tips about this step at the end of the post.

You should’ve heard the ooh’s and ahh’s when we realized what we’d created.

CDs covered in paint and glitter

Seriously!  Are you as excited as I am?

Then we placed the CDs by the fire, and when they were completely dry, I used a long length of gauzy ribbon to make a loop and a bow for each one.

Aren’t they just the prettiest CD ornaments ever?

What do you think?  Are you up for making some?

painted, glittered cd ornaments

Tips for minimizing mess when using glitter:

Work over a tray:  To keep the glitter mess to a minimum, work over a tray when crafting with glitter.  That way, when you’re finished, you can tip any excess glitter into a ziplock or a container, and save it for next time.

2) Use playdough to clean up loose glitter: keep a ball of homemade play dough nearby to pick up any loose glitter after crafting. Simply roll the playdough over your work surface, and voila… you now have sparkly play dough AND the glitter mess is gone.

This is our favourite recipe for homemade play dough.

CD Christmas ornaments with paint and glitter

To see all of our easy and inexpensive Christmas crafts, be sure to click the following link and check out my Hooligans Xmas Craft board!

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Comments

      • happyhooligans

        I don’t think paint will be enough to adhere the glitter to the ornaments, Stacy. I believe you would need to use glue.

      • Anna Underwood

        Plain paint definitely doesn’t work… Once when we made these I didn’t add enough glue and it all flaked off as it dried… Very sad for the kids and for me! Of course, then we had a great excuse to do it again….

      • happyhooligans

        Bummer. So glad you tried them again though. And so glad we added the glitter glue to ours. Was it acrylics that you used, or did you use tempera paint. Tempera can be quite flakey. Acrylics are usually quite durable once dry.

      • Anna

        Pretty sure it was Tempera paint, Jackie. It worked out ok in the end, we just mixed up another batch with more glue and gave it another go! The kids were fine with it once they found out we could do it again! And we did the glitter right on top of our paint/glue mixture and then I sprayed it with Mod Podge. Worked like a charm! Thanks for all the fun ideas! The kiddos and I just love them!

    • Jackie Anas

      Very classy and would be great for all ages. This may be obvious but I’m assuming that the decorated side is the old CD or DVD name and graphics so that the finished product has a shiny back. Thanks for all the tips, too!

      Reply

  3. Jessica Lovitt

    Jackie, I am duly impressed! Way to conquer your fear! They really are beautiful ornaments. I just may have to bite the bullet. 🙂

    Reply

      • Sam Sallee

        Wonder how these would look hanging in the naked trees outside? Could some sort of sealer or glue be sprayed to protect them from the weather. Our trees look so naked in the winter.

  6. susan

    So cute. Think I’ll put photo in center with a frame of mac or beans painted.
    A good project to do with my 2yr old.
    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  11. Naushina

    Hey there! I absolutely love the CD’s. We are planning n making it at home as well. Did u paint/glitter both sides?

    Reply

  13. Anna U.

    Love this! I will be doing these with my munchkins and adding it to their Christmas gifts for the parents. They look super pretty!

    Reply

  14. Carrie

    I’m craft challenge,but lead an annual Christmas Craft party at my church. Can you use regular glue instead of glitter glue and then put glitter all over it?

    Reply

  16. Mary Moore

    I also do daycare and love new ideas. I have used c ds before but not for tree ornaments. great idea. We will do these next week. Love it

    Reply

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