Cotton plant Christmas ornament tutorial .

SNOW BURST

   As   promised here is the tut on making a Christmas ornament out of a cotton plant.This is a easy craft to do but it is very pretty when the lights from the tree hit the glitter.Oh how they sparkle! I live in the south and cotton plants are not hard to find here,but I do not know if you can purchase cotton online .

cotton in the field

Materials
cotton plant ( I got mine from local farmer)

 hot glue gun and glue sticks

glitter ( your choice but I like the fine iridescent glitter)
white craft paint (again your choice)
paintbrushes (not big ones ,use what you need to paint the snow burst)
ribbon(I like all kind but like anything else its what you like)
bowl (to catch the glitter for reuse.just pour back in glitter battle )

image 1

First you need to cut the cotton bulb off the stem. What you want is the husk or open bulb see image 1 . Then you need to remove the cotton from the bulb.This is easy to do just gently pull cotton out. See image 2 and 3.

image 2

image 3

Now take the husk apart by gently moving them back and forth while holding one side

hull broken apart 

drop of glue on torn end

Now using your glue gun place a drop of glue on the end of the hull.This is the end your broke from the other hulls not the pointy tip.Now add another hull to the one with glue on it. Hold a few seconds so it will cool and stay on. You want to alternation the hull position meaning the wider side and the sides with the indention should not always face each other.Neither should they always be facing away from  each other.see the image 4.

put another hull on the tip of the glued one 

hull position  image 4




Now take another hull and place it at the top and one at the bottom,. Making a star figure.see image 5 

image 5

this is the shape you want  for the bass

Now place a hull in center of star ( image 6) and another hull on the other side in the middle  of the star 

image 6

 Now keep adding hulls in between  to form a star burst like shape
See the images below .There is no wrong way to add the hulls .Keep adding
till you get the look that you want.

keep adding hulls

add hulls till you get the shape you want

finishes snow burst

 These are my finished snow burst.Remember each will be different.

Add caption

 Now take your white pant and cover the snow burst completely.This will need to be painted 2 times because the cotton hull soaks up the paint.Make sure to get in all the corners and hiding places .

paint snow burst

While the paint is still wet take your glitter and hold your snow burst over a bowl(to catch the excess glitter.you can reuse this ) Sprinkle glitter all over the snow burst making sure to get all sides and the insides.

 Now after it has completely dried take your ribbon and glue it in one of the hulls in the center of the burst. You can take a small bristle paint brush and paint the glue white if you wish ,being careful not to paint the ribbon where it shows

Ribbon added to dry snow burst 

 That's it! Now you can create an heirloom that you can hand down to your children and so forth.It's using nature to create and repurposed at its best. i enjoyed making these and my best friend already wants to make some for next year christmas gift! Below are some images of them on my tree.See how they sparkle? my camera could not do them justice.I hope you enjoyed this tut and if you have any questions please ask away!

 Remember 
Have fun doing what you love
and 
Love what you are doing!