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Old beach balls or playground balls make excellent round ornaments, while other shapes like teardrops or spikes could be made from papier mâché. Cardboard boxes make excellent square ornaments that you can cover with self-adhesive plastic film to look like presents, or you can cut out the sides and place pictures inside. Candy cane ornaments can be made by taping tubes from paper towels or toilet tissue together in a cane shape, then painting them white with red stripes. Cut out snowflake ornaments from white art board. You can even use old stuffed bears for teddy-bear ornaments by dressing them up in Santa hats--if you don't mind them getting a little wet or dusty.outdoor play equipmentoutdoor play equipment

Hooks

To make oversized hooks like those used to string regular-sized ornaments on the tree, use a bit of wire looped through a tiny hole in the bottom of old yogurt or cottage cheese containers. Tape these securely to the top of the ornament and wrap them in foil or paint them silver. Then, cover the hook with newspaper while you paint the rest of the ornament. Alternatively, you can simply thread some wire or string through papier mâché or cardboard ornaments, or leave this bit out altogether if you want to place the ornaments on the ground.outdoor play equipment

Enamel spray paints are usually the easiest to use and will offer a glossier, more weather-resistant finish to most surfaces. However, designs or embellishments can be glued on or painted on with regular metallic craft paints by hand once the base color has dried. Alternatively, you can use self-adhesive plastic film, vinyl sheeting or even Mylar wrapping paper to cover your ornaments, as all of these are reasonably weather-resistant. One of the benefits of do-it-yourself is that you can choose whatever colors and designs you like and get creative with the materials you already have on hand