2 Ways to Make Beautiful & Unique Salt Shaker Christmas Ornaments

Happy Christmas in July!  I can’t stop buying old salt and pepper shakers!  Once I bought 12 pair on just ONE antiquing trip to Paradise, California!  I especially love finding tiny ones so I can make salt shaker necklaces out of them.  But I couldn’t resist the larger ones either so I created a salt shaker Christmas ornament for my tree.  I think handmade Christmas ornaments make great gifts, too, so I made a bunch. Then I started selling them and they’ve become one of our best-selling ornaments!

This article includes FOUR tutorial videos, so keep scrolling!

But first, you have a chance to win some of the rhinestones I use on these ornaments. Totally Dazzled gave me a $50 gift card to give to one of my readers. Enter below:

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Vintage Salt Shaker Christmas Ornament #1

First, I filled these with fake snow.  I cut about a 10″ piece of dark annealed wire.  That’s more than you’ll need but the wire is pretty inexpensive and it’s easier to work with a longer piece.  I ran it through two of the holes in the top, wrapped the short end around the longer three times, and trimmed off the extra with my wire cutters.

This wire is harder than the other wires I use for jewelry so I don’t use my Vintaj cutters.  I use a more heavy duty wire cutter for this wire.

On most of them I then added a freshwater pearl bead.  Sometimes I use other extra beads that I have around.  You can see one in the photo below is pewter.

After stringing the bead on I bend the wire about 1/8″ above it, make a loop with my round nose pliers, and wrap the end of the wire around three times before trimming off.

I made a big “S” hook with the wire to make matching hangers.

Then I hand-stamped several words and phrases on brass discs with my metal punches.  I have 3mm alphabet stamps, 6mm alphabet stamps, and a vintage set that I got at an antique sale.  Here’s the blog post where I bought them AND a lot more salt shakers.

Video Tutorials for Ornament #1

Take a look at the video:

And here’s my Facebook Live video where I recently showed my followers how to make these repurposed ornaments:

Salt Shaker Christmas Ornament #2

As you can tell, all the vintage salt and pepper shakers I use are very pretty. I love the detail in them. But often I find very simple square glass individual salt and pepper shakers — “Boring!” Those are often even cheaper.

Step One: Clean the Old Salt Shakers

I usually use a disinfecting wipe (such as Clorox) but you could also wash them with Dawn. The important thing is to remove all the greasy film

Step Two: Fill with Faux Snow

Once the shakers are dry, pour in some of the faux snow. I’ve also used glitter!

Step Three: Make the Top

Cut about a 10″ piece of dark annealed wire.

Run it through two of the holes in the top, twist the short end around the longer three times, and trimmed off the extra with my wire cutters.

Again, because this wire is harder than regular jewelry wire, I don’t use my Vintaj cutters. I use a more heavy-duty wire cutter for the annealed wire.

Add a bead. (I used a clear glass faceted bead on these samples.)

After stringing on the bead, bend the wire about 1/8″ above it, make a loop with round nose pliers, and wrap the end of the wire around three times before trimming off.

Step Four: Embellish

I don’t usually add stamped tags or charms to these, although you could. But I do glue on a beautiful rhinestone.

HERE is my new source for beautiful rhinestone embellishments. I use the small antiqued brass rhinestone embellishments but they also come in rose gold, silver, and antique silver, and have LOTS more designs, too.

Step Five: Add a Hanger

For these simple Christmas ornaments, I just cut 12″ of red and white gingham ribbon and ran it through the top loop.

Video Tutorials for Ornament #2

Here’s the short 1 1/2-minute Reel video I did for Facebook. — The video is giving me a little trouble… If you have a Facebook account, you can see it HERE.

Scroll down to see the full version.

I also did a longer LIVE version on Facebook. If this video can’t be seen here, you can go watch it directly on Facebook HERE.

If you like crafting with vintage items and would like some ideas to repurpose them into handmade Christmas ornaments and other holiday decor please sign up for our 12 Days of Vintage, Upcycled, Recycled, and Repurposed Christmas Decorations.  You’ll get daily emails full of ideas for 12 days starting in the fall.

More Vintage Salt and Pepper Shaker Projects

And here are a few more projects with salt shakers… and I STILL have more leftover!

• Salt Shaker Photo Holder
• DIY Salt Shaker Snow Globes
• Salt of the Earth Necklace

Thanks for reading my project! These beautiful and unique ornaments make great gifts or lovely vintage-style decor for your Christmas tree!

‘Til the next project,

 Ann @ Duct Tape and Denim

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Originally published on Jul 14, 2015.   We join these blog parties.