Xmas 2011 - My vintage glass bell display: DIY!

By Suze on Dec 9, 2011 | In Christmas 2011

I love glass bells and domes. They are great to beautifully display little collections of objects and I find that a glass cloche instantly conveys the feeling that a seemingly random group of items is actually meaningful and worth to look at and special, just like a specimen in a natural history museum...

Few weeks ago I found this vintage glass bell at a thrift store (€ 10) and I'm now using it to show off a minimalist holiday arrangement: it's super simple but I'm very happy about it.

I bought a small stock of miniature trees last year AFTER Christmas and I was looking forward using it.

Let me reveal you a little trick, if you still don't know: if you go at your local craft or hobby store or anywhere selling Christmas decor stuff and ornaments AFTER the 25th you'll get amazing deals on the holiday merchandise! Shop owners typically don't really want to keep that stuff in their storehouses until next year (or forever) nor return it so obviously there's huge sales and sometimes they're (almost) literally giving it away, specially pieces that were used for windows display or maybe with invisible faults or damages after a season on the shelves. Keep your eyes open for great deals and although someone will find weird to see you buying Christmas lights or ornaments or figurines on the 27th, be patient: I promise you next year you will be happy you did! :) For me it's becoming almost a holiday tradition...

But let's get back to our glass bell display. For a basic arrangement you will just need few supplies such as a cute ribbon to add a festive touch and ideally something to use as a base (but you can do without it as I did...).

The most important thing is of course what you want to display. As I said I went for a very minimalistic way but the best thing about this type of decor is that you can experiment and make changes as much as you want! Other ideas you can try include: a terrarium with little fresh pine branches or pinecones or mistletoe, your most beloved ornament or just an arrangement of christmas balls in nice colors, you can hang a comet to the "ceiling" of the glass dome, or you can even create little vignettes or scenes, using moss and figurines such as deers, mushrooms o classic Christmas carachters...
Here are a couple of alternative ribbons I've tried.

...And when this season is over, just lift the glass dome and you will be ready to set up your spring-themed collections!

Hope you liked this idea friends! I wish you a lovely weekend and if you have the chance go for a walk and try to collect around as much pinecones and fresh pine branches as you can: in the coming weeks we'll see together some great inspirations on how to use them to decorate your home!