I’ve had these 5 glass ornaments sitting around. Apparently I used one at some point because it was originally a box of 6. I kept moving them from shelf to shelf in my craft room so decided to finally fill them with things I had at the house.

Here is what I ended up with, along with some notes on assembling them.

(Clockwise from top left)

  1. Sea shells and sand. I started out with a lot more sand in this, but the shells sank into it and you couldn’t see them. These are some shells (and a stone) I picked up in Costa Rica, so this is also a memory ornament. Only very small shells fit into the hole at the top of the ornament, so that is one drawback if you are trying to use items you’ve collected.
  2. Rosemary. These are springs cut  from two plants in my garden. One is dark green, and the other has a dusty green look. A chopstick came in handy to poke the pieces in after the first two as they were inclined to stick up through the hole.
  3.  Melted snowman. Made from Epsom salts, peppercorns and a small triangle of orange felt. The pieces do sink in the salts, but a gentle shake brings them back up to the surface.
  4. Beads: These are the cheap mardi gras style beads, and they are easier to get in the ornament if you cut the strand first rather than trying to feed them in doubled up. It took me until the third strand to have this revelation.
  5. Peacock feather. Because doesn’t everyone have spare peacock feathers in their house? This one also needed the chopstick to get it inside all the way, and to make sure it was curving toward the glass.

You could also use sheet music cut into strips, yarn scraps, small buttons, really anything that is small enough to fit and would look good in a jar would do nicely.