Cacti Photo Holders/Wall Hanging (using Christmas Ornaments)

Hey! This Instructable is for making faux cacti with old glass Christmas ornaments. I then show you how to either turn them into photo holders or a wall hanging! Perfect for cacti lovers, upcyclers, and people who love unique house decor. Towards the end of the instructable, follow the steps for the project you want to complete (I thought it would be double work to do two different instructables with the same project techniques). Hope you enjoy this instructable!

E

You'll need

- clear glass Christmas ornaments (clear plastic ones will also work)

-green paint (I used a few shades so the finished cacti would be different colors)

-E6000 or other strong ish glue

-flower beads (I got mine from Michaels in the strung beads section of the jewelry section)

-small terracotta pots (my photo holders use the smallest ones on shelves of Michaels, the wall hanging's pots come in packs of 4 or so and I found those hanging up on a peg at Michaels)

-white puffy paint (or another color. this is going to make the thorns)

-Work surface that can get messy

Project specific supplies:

photo holders: photo holder wires. I got mine online in a pack of 6

wall hanging: dowel rod and string to hang the wall hanging and the ornament cacti (My cacti for wall hanging are really light. pick string that can hold the weight of the wall hanging/cacti)

1)Get your green paint and ornaments ready.

2)take the top off your ornament so you're holding just the ornament ball

3)pour a little green paint into the ornament opening and swirl the ornament. Do this until the entire inside is coated in green paint (you may need to add more green paint). Let dry.

4)Repeat for all the ornaments you want to make into cacti. Let dry completely

5)Repeat 3&4 of this step if the green paint in your ornament dried with cracks in it (not all of it is green).

tip: let the ornaments dry by sitting them top side up in the terracotta pots

Take the wires out of the tops of the ornaments. We don't need these for the photo holders. (We DO need them for the wall hanging)

Use E6000 to adhere the green painted ornaments to the pots. It is recommended that you try to not touch the E6000 with your skin (I used the glue container to smear the glue around onto the pots).

Make sure the openings of the ornaments are pointed up. If just want glass cacti and not a wall hanging or photo holder, you can put the tops on the ornaments and glue the ornaments so the tops are pointing down into the pot. (not pictured)

I squeezed some E6000 glue out onto a paper plate and dipped the flowers into the glue then stuck them on to the outside of the ornaments. Don't put too much glue on the flowers, or they will be sliding down the ornaments constantly which will annoy you, trust me!

Let dry completely

Use your white puffy paint to paint thorns onto your cacti (don't use clear paint, sorry I lost my white puffy paint when I was taking this picture and found it later of course!)

tip: don't squeeze the puffy paint bottle too hard (then the thorns will be really thick) and try varying the location of the thorns so they aren't all in a line. I also varied their angles

Let dry completely. This doesnt take too long

Step not pictured. (my phone died before this step I am sorry!)

Take off tops of ornaments

We will be putting the photo wires through a hole in the top of the ornament tops. The bottoms of the photo holders will be glued to the inside bottom of the ornament.

Drop a little glue into the bottom of the ornament and a little on the top of the ornament. Put the top of the ornament back on and stick a photo holder wire through the hole with glue and into the glue at the bottom of the ornament.

Let dry completely. You might have to watch your cacti to make sure the photo wires don't fall and become not vertical.

Your photo holders are done! Stick some pictures in them or give as gifts!

Hope you enjoyed this instructable!!

pictured step: creating hanging dowel rod

Take a piece of string and tie it 1 inch from the end of side one of your dowel rod and then take the other end ande tie it to side 2 of the dowel rod. I tried to be a little fancy and tied the string to the dowel rod, then wrapped the string around the dowel rod a few times then tied it to the same side again. Next, I checked the lengththat the length of string that i had for the part that was going to hang was the length I needed it to be to achieve the desired hanging height it wouel create.

next, I did the same wrapping and tying as i did on side one of my dowel rod.

next part of this step is to tie lengths of string to the wires of your cacti ornament tops and the other sides of those lengths to the dowel rod (between where the wall hanging "hanging string" is tied to the dowel rod. (not pictured)

You're done with your wall hanging! Now you just have to find a place to hang it up!

Hope you enjoyed this instructable!!

E