...W.I.P. Wednesday...2016 Graduate Christmas Ornament...

...for this year's Scout Christmas Ornament...I wanted to make a Graduate Ornament...

...but I didn't want to use his 'actual' tassel from graduation...and I didn't think that the metal part of the real tassel would fit into the glass balls that I have...I still have almost a dozen from the glass Peace ornaments...

...I found the little graduate tassel key ring at Dollar Tree...for 1$...it's not the right colour...but I'm going to change that with the pearl cotton in royal and gold...I already had the fray stop...

...the real tassels are made of some type of cord that I couldn't find (at least not quickly enough to do this project)...so I'm using pearl cotton which will fray...

...first I inspected the key ring construction and found that it'd be easy to take apart...

....then I measured a piece of cardboard for the length that I wanted...

...cut it to size...and then started wrapping the blue and gold thread around it...

...tied the wrapped threads off at the top and left enough thread to attach it to the top of the ornament...

...I took apart the key ring...

...slipped the wrapped threads off of the cardboard...

...and fed them through the 2016 band...

...and pinched it closed around the threads...

...nice and tight...

...so then...I still had the loop at the bottom...

...and I just coated it with a generous amount of fray stop...and let it dry completely...

...and then cut all the threads...

...and I had a perfect little short blue and gold 2016 tassel that wouldn't fray...

...so I gathered the threads together and stuffed them into the glass ball...

...the only tricky part was getting the 2016 charm through the neck of the glass ball...but it fit with all the thread...

...then I tied the top threads about the base of the ornament topper...and popped it in place...

...and the little ornament was complete...

...but then I thought I could make it 'better'...by adding some of the gold table scatter from Scout's graduation party...

...but it didn't really 'scatter' in the glass ball...it just kinda hung out at the bottom...so I took it back out...

...and there you have it...Scout's 2016 Graduation Christmas Ornament...

~Have a lovely day!