DIY Penguin Ornaments

So, in mid-November I started thinking about a few options for gifts I could give to my students for Christmas. I knew with only 10 students I could afford to put a little more money or a little more effort (or both!) into the gifts. I vaguely remembered seeing some adorable ideas on pinterest (which I've been avoiding the last few months, since it takes up so much of my time if I let it!), so I went and browsed around through my pins and random pins.

I found a few ideas to make penguin ornaments out of lightbulbs. I didn't particularly like any of the exact pins that I found...especially since very few had any DIY instructions. I figured it couldn't be too difficult to figure out, so I decided to make my own version and share it on my blog. Maybe I'll even pin it and share my "instructions".

It's not a complicated process, but you do need a few tools in order to make these adorable ornaments. You'll need:
-One lightbulb (standard, not coil) per ornament you'd like to make
-Black, white, and orange paint (I used acrylic paint that specified that it worked on glass surfaces)
-A hot glue gun
-Multiple glue sticks for the glue gun
-Ribbon (color of your choice)...not too thick if you are going to use it for bow ties.
-Googly eyes (if you want to glue them on instead of painting them on)

The paint I used: Martha Stewart Acrylic Paint. Of course I didn't take a picture of the front of the bottles...but this is specifically for glass surfaces. Martha's paints are a little pricier than the "standard" brands...but I happened to catch them on a sale day, which meant they were the cheapest I could buy at the time! They are great paints, but I'm not sure I would have bought them if they were full price.

Here's the process I went through:

1. I painted "the belly" onto the lightbulb. The area I painted was much larger than the final belly would be, but it's easier to paint dark colors over light colors than vice versa.

2. (Not pictured) I blow dried the paint with a hair dryer. It's a little silly, but it made the process go pretty fast. Then I drew the belly on top of the dried white paint.

 3. Next, I painted around the drawn-on belly with the black paint. Again (not pictured) I used the blow dryer to speed up the drying process. Once the black paint is dry, you should probably get the glue gun heated. If your glue gun heats slowly, you might want to turn it on before the black paint dries! 

*Note: If you choose to paint on the eyes, you do not need to turn on your glue gun quite yet.

4. After the black paint had dried, I painted on a nose/beak/bill (whichever term you use for a penguin...). Here you can also see the remains of the sketched-on belly. I again used the blow dryer to dry the orange paint quickly.

5. Once all of the paint was dry, I used my pre-heated glue gun to glue on the googly eyes. *If you are painting on the eyes, this is when you would do so. If that is the case, you probably want to turn on your glue gun about now...

6. My sister is the kindest person on the planet...or at least she was the day we made these. I cannot for the life of me make a little bow tie. She was kind enough to make the bow ties. She was also kind enough to glue on the bow ties and glue on the ribbon at the top. (I was exhausted from a full day of work and our school Christmas program that night, and I wanted to take the ornaments in with me the next day. She made that dream come true!!) To make the loop/wrapped ribbon at the top, simply cut a length of the ribbon (I think my length was about 6" or so...I can't remember for sure). Tie a knot near the ends of the ribbon. Glue the knot to the metal part of the lightbulb (the part that resembles a screw). Then glue around the metal, pressing the ribbon to the glue and wrapping it as you go. Make sure you leave a long enough loop of ribbon to hang the ornament on your Christmas tree.

 7. Since my ornaments were gifts for my students, I used a gold paint pen (not listed in my tools above) to write their names on the front of the penguin (underneath the belly). On the back, I then wrote: 

"<3 miss="" p="" wilson="">

SCS 2013"

8. I hung up all 12 penguins that I made (10 for my students, 1 for me, and 1 for my sister) on the tree we had in our classroom. It's a little difficult to see the ornaments on the tree in the picture, but they are there!

Overall, this was a fairly inexpensive DIY. If I had purchased ornaments for my students, I think it would have been MUCH more. I bought the lightbulbs for less than $10. I also bought the paint for about $1.50 per bottle. The ribbon was $2 per roll (I used a full roll and part of a 2nd). I already had the googly eyes, glue gun, glue sticks, and paint pen. Altogether, the cost was less than $20, which is less than $1.75 per ornament. :)

My students absolutely LOVED them. They were so excited when they first saw them, and they loved to go over to the tree and "find" their penguin, even though it never moved...haha.

I think if I had a class of 30 students I might still do something like this...it would've been less than $60, even if I had to buy triple the supplies. I don't think I would, though, since there was plenty of paint left in the white and black, and the orange was barely used at all! I think I might need a second tube of black and white, just to make sure I had plenty. It would take much more time to make these for a larger class, but I would definitely still want to make them. I think it's nice for students to have something handmade from their teacher. :)

Merry belated Christmas! I hope you felt blessed by God's love and his gift of Jesus! I pray God's blessings as you end 2013 with your loved ones, and that you enter 2014 in good spirits and with lots of exciting plans or hope to make some great plans! :)

God bless!