DIY Giant Glam Lighted Ornaments using Dollar Tree Plastic Trays

Hello Sweet Friends,

I’m so excited to bring you today’s project; DIY giant GLAM lighted ornaments made from Dollar Tree and Dollar General plastic trays. I can hardly believe how BEAUTIFUL they turned out!

There have been quite a few Dollar Tree lighted ornament DIYs I have seen that were made using plastic bowls. The ones I have seen are very beautiful, sometimes hanging and sometimes stacked together. I was actually so inspired by these that I was initially going to do my take on the bowl idea. Which, in a way, is STILL what I did.

Instead of using the Dollar Tree bowls for this project, I wanted to try the plastic trays. The idea was to make them look like large gemstones. And with a few hiccups in the process, I think they turned out pretty AWESOME!

Follow along for a supply list and instructions for this DIY.

Supply list for each ornament

• 2 matching Dollar Tree trays
• one strand of battery-powered warm lights
• silver spray paint
• metallic gold acrylic paint
• food coloring and clear Elmer’s Glue
• small container to mix in
• paint brush
• E6000 glue
• glue gun
• velcro with adhesive back
• ribbon and embellishments, optional
• ribbon or wire to hang with, optional

The very first thing I did was to paint the inside of one tray with the silver paint. Follow directions on the paint can, definitely in a WELL ventilated area.

The next step was the hardest part by far for this project. I wanted to paint the other tray with a color. There was some stained glass translucent spray paint that I found online for $18 per can, but I was just too thrifty to purchase it. So instead I found instructions to make your own stain glass paint using clear Elmer’s glue and food coloring.

I mixed a few drops of red food coloring with the clear Elmers and it looked like it would work perfectly!

When I began brushing it onto the tray is when I realized how blotchy it was going to be. After one coat, it looked like the below picture. I was just so frustrated.

Seriously, I was just going to give up on the project at this point. This was just the hottest mess of hot messes! And on top of that, it took FOREVER to dry.

But, since I don’t like giving up, I persisted. I gave it two more coats of the paint, letting it dry overnight each time. I was just hoping and praying that this project would turn out as good as I had imagined.

The two red ones are pictured below, after the three coats of paint. The were still a little blotchy, but you really could not tell too badly.

I also painted a little of the gold acrylic paint around the perimeter of the tray to help camouflage the blotchy paint job.

For the next step, I glued in the strand of twinkle lights into the silver tray. For the red ornament, I used red lights. (But for the green and gold ornaments, I used warm white lights.)

I just put dots of hot glue around the outer edge of the tray and zig-zagged the lights after the glue had cool a little. I left the battery pack on the outside of the tray.

Next, I glued the two trays together, alternating with E6000 and hot glue around the perimeter.

Then I attached the battery pack onto the back with velcro.

And after gluing on a bow and some Christmas embellishments, I was FINALLY finished. And, boy, did these ornaments turn out CUTE!!!

Oh my GOSH! Aren’t they GORGEOUS? The pictures don’t really do them justice.

In the end, I made two of each color; red, green and gold. The green ones were made using the same instructions as the red ones. The gold ones were much easier to make. I only used the gold acrylic paint around the perimeter of the ornament and it only took one coat. I left the center clear.

The only one I wasn’t really happy with was the green one, using two deviled egg trays. The green paint would settle in the low part of the tray and I couldn’t do anything about it.

My favorites are the gold gemstone ornaments! Wouldn’t they be pretty decor for a winter wedding? Or a New Year’s Eve party? Which ones are your favorite?

I hope I’ve inspired you to give this idea a try. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Pamela