If you accidentally broke a bauble while undecorating the Christmas tree, don’t be sad! Because you can turn trash into treasure: Make DIY German glass glitter from scratch with broken ornaments! So when life gives you lemons … um, broken glass, make glass glitter!
Vintage German glass glitter has a long tradition: Crushed glass glitter was already used for DIY flocked Christmas trees in the Victorian era.
Related: The Victorian Christmas Tree
How To Make Vintage DIY German Glass Glitter From Scratch
You’ll Need:
- broken glass ornaments
- rolling pin
- strong plastic bag
- cardboard or newspapers
Prepare Glass Ornaments
Remove the top and bottom of the broken glass ornament because the glass is too thick there to be crushed. Remove also all metal parts.
Put the broken glass ornaments into a strong plastic bag.
Protect Your Work Surface
Put something – such as cardboard or newspapers – under and over the plastic bag with the glass ornaments because glass is really sharp and cuts even through strong plastic bags.
Make DIY German Glass Glitter
Using the rolling pin, crush the glass ornaments as finely as you want.
You can use a stainless steel strainer to sieve the glass glitter if you want. Here I used the DIY glass glitter as it is.
Use DIY Glass Glitter
I used this vintage glass glitter to decorate painted pine cones.
Related: How To Make Snow Covered Pine Cones
Use glue or DIY wheatpaste to glue the homemade glass glitter onto the ornaments.
By the way, DIY glass glitter is less sharp than one would expect but better be careful when handling glass glitter!