Re-purpose Ornaments. Or Not.

I've been trying to think what to do for craft this week at playgroup.  I took a chance & went by an op shop for some ornaments.  They had loads.  That's strange!  It must be the season for them or something!  Cool!  So for a few dollars I had a pile of ornaments that needed help.  So I spent the afternoon making a mess really!  So what did I learn?  

1. The glass ornaments that break don't like having glue on them.  The old paint will come off under it & make a mess of whatever type of paper you are trying to stick on it.
2. Tissue paper is pretty mucky to try to use & you have to be really fussy if you want it all nice & tidy & neat.  Not going to happen with kids aged 2-4.  
3. Crepe paper is just as bad but the colour comes off on your fingers & takes a little while to come off! Also not good for kids!   
4. Acrylic paint is good.  Works well.  But messy too.  Lots of fun for kids but will take too long to dry on that stuff.  
5. The glittery balls cover over with paint quite well which surprised me!  
6. Once painted though what can you decorate them with to jazz up the paint!  Needs to be the following day or something anyway once the paint is dry.  
7. Rice paper works great!  But I only had a really small piece I found in my stuff & it worked nicely but I haven't seen any around in stores for a long time.  Looks like great decoupage.  
8. Regular printer paper also does not work though.  Too hard for little fingers to work as it needs loads of soaking in glue to get it soft enough to work nicely.  
9. Fabric tied around with ribbon at the top does look OK.  But not a craft for kids to do as it's boring!  
10. Don't pull the hangers off them first thing.  No matter how awful they are, leave them on as they hang up to dry more easily with a string.  Put a new string on later.  
11. If there are broken glass ones, take out the hanging tops from them & use them in others.  They are handy as the old ones had good wire hangers in them too.  If they are loose you can glue them on later!  

So there you go.  I will ditch that idea for playgroup for now.  I now have a pile of ornaments I guess I will have to paint & decorate myself sometime!  

Tomorrow night I will have to spend the evening cutting out instead!