Plastic Ball Manger

Last updated on November 10th, 2015 at 12:21 am

How to Make a Plastic Ball Christmas Tree Ornament

Plastic Ball Manger Ornament

I hope you all know what kind of balls these are – restaurants like McDonalds and Burger king have them in the kid’s play area. Well, my son had tons of them and we decided to cut one in half to make this plastic ball Christmas tree trim with a manger scene inside. It looks great on the Christmas tree!

Editor’s Note:  I haven’t tried this, but I suspect that plastic Easter eggs, the kind that come apart to hold Easter treats, would work very well as a substitute for a plastic ball in this craft project.  You might need to put in a bit more moss at the back, but other than that, you should be able to proceed as the directions say below.

Supplies:

• Plastic ball
• Exacto knife
• Thin gold ribbon
• Ruffled lace white, trimmed in gold
• Tiny manger people
• Spanish moss
• Glue

Instructions:

The balls that we used had a line going around them which was a perfect line for cutting, enabling you to make cut the ball in half and make two ornaments from one ball. Pierce the ball along the cutting line with an exacto knife and finish cutting all around with scissors.

In the bottom half of one ball glue in some Spanish moss and the manger scene people.

Now glue the lace around the rim of the ball, making sure that you begin gluing the edge of the lace just inside the edge of the ball, starting and ending at the bottom.

Make a bow and glue that to the bottom of the ornament, covering up the ends of the lace.

Glue a little angel or similar Christmas charm on the top so it is positioned half in, and half on top of the ball.

With the exacto knife, make a small slit at the top of the ball and thread both ends of a length of ribbon through the slit. Leave a loop of ribbon outside to use as a hanger and knot the two ends of the riboon on the inside of the ball to secure.

Tip:

Before you add the moss and people, you can add glitter to the inside of the ball. You can also add glitter to the back of the ball for extra shine, if desired.