This project is perfect for grown-ups who love their childhood toys and kids who want to have a grown up Christmas tree. Who would have known that LEGO make great ornaments for all ages? With the use of some left-over minifigurines, old pieces or some of the plant pieces from LEGO sets, you can create a chic set of custom ornaments for your tree this winter.
1. Start by assembling the bodies of your minifigures, but don’t put the heads on. You will want any hair, hats or accessories that go on the head attached to those though. If you’re using older pieces, be sure to wash them because any dust or build up of any kind will prevent your paint and your glitter from adhering to your pieces.
2. Using an acrylic paint in a color close to your glitter, put a thin layer over the entire minifig body, head and any accessories with careful attention paid to the creases in between the arms and the legs. These spots need to have glitter as well or it won’t turn out right.
One tip here: I pulled out a pair of tweezers to hold the figures from the inside so I could get full paint coverage.
Before moving onto the next piece, fill a bowl with the glitter of your choice.
3. Drop your minifigure piece into the bowl of glitter and shake it up. You want full coverage on the entire piece. One hint here: use a spoon to sort of shift the glitter around so you don’t get it stuck in large globs. Pay special attention to areas like the hands where it can be difficult to get the glitter to stick. Also, notice how I painted a thin layer of gold paint and then covered with gold glitter? This really helps to get a consistent look in case some of your glitter starts to fall off with handling.
4. Pull your pieces out of the glitter bowl and place on a cookie sheet with a piece of paper underneath to dry. The paper will catch all the glitter that falls off so you don’t have to clean up as much later.
5. You can also use this technique on any accessories or other pieces that you like. I thought the LEGO plant branches had a wonderful Christmas tree feel, so I used this technique on these as well.
When dry, put all the pieces on a piece of paper and spray a thin layer or unscented hairspray on all the pieces to set the glitter.
6. Get string or ribbon and make perfect loops. Depending on the LEGO piece, you’ll want to use different techniques. For the minifigs, I put the ribbon around the neck and then placed the head on top to secure in place. With the leaf pieces, I simply looped through one of the holes.
7. Hang and admire!
You need:
LEGO pieces
Thread or ribbon
Acrylic paint
Scissors
2 Paintbrushes
Cooling rack
Paper
Bowl
Glitter!
Total cost of this project: FREE. I had all the pieces, so this cost me nothing at all, but if you had to buy the glitter and the paint, it would run you a mere $3 to $5.