Mosaic Christmas Decorations

 

Well it's that time of year again....time to start thinking about your Christmas projects (I start thinking about Christmas early with young children)! With this in mind I've devoted this week's 'Mosaic How to and Project Ideas' to making simple but very beautiful mosaic Christmas decorations. These decorations will not only set your tree or table apart but could also be given to someone as a very special present. Be warned though, start making these decorations and its difficult to stop, so many ideas and so little time.

Materials

• Styrofoam shape + Christmas decoration hanger
• A selection of tiles and tesserae - in this project I've used red stained glass chips, 1 cm square mirrors and green mix micro ceramic tiles.
• Adhesive - Weldbond, PVA or craft glue
• Grout & supplies to remove the grout
• Tweezers
• Small paint brush

Step 1:

Plan your design and mark it out on your shape. I found the easiest way was to start at the join line in the middle of the shape and work outwards from there.

When planning your design think about where the decoration is going to be placed, that is on a tree or table etc. If like mine it's a tree decoration than your want to create something that is going to make an impact. I've chosen the red stained glass chips and square mirror tiles because they are going to reflect the lights of the Christmas tree beautifully. It's a simple design because any detail would just get lost on my overcrowded and very blingy tree!

Step 2: 

Glue your pieces & Christmas decoration hanger to the styrofoam shape. Apply the adhesive directly onto the styrofoam shape with a small paint brush and use your tweezers to position each piece. Don't let dry adhesive accumulate on your shape as it will create an uneven surface.

Step 3:

Allow the glue to dry and clean up any excess adhesive using a small tool (repositioning tool, toothpick, etc).

Step 4

Grout your decoration; in this case I've used red brick grout colourant.