project // crystal ball felt ornament (with benzie deep-etch dies)

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The future looks bright thanks to this adorable felt crystal ball! You might not have known that you needed a kawaii crystal ball ornament, but I'm telling you, you do. It's sparkly and cute, and we all need more of that in our lives.

I created this with deep-etch dies I designed for Benzie Design, but I'm using them in different ways. This uses two sets: first, my Circles and Scallops set, which I made to go along with the felt ornament pattern sets I make, and then a new Snow Globe Base, designed to go along with the first set and make snow globes.

Find all the deep-etch Benzie dies here.

As I was making some snow globes (scroll down to see them!), I noticed that they kind of looked a bit like a crystal ball too. And just like that, I could see into the future.



My fortune was that I got to make this super cute ornament that just makes me smile every time I look at it. Plus, I love adding sparkles and this was just a whole new way to do that.

So get your manual die cutter out, grab these dies from Benzie, and let's get stitching!



You will need:

Clear Vinyl
Wool Blend Felt (I used white and pink)
Embroidery floss
Circles and Scallops Deep-Etch Die
Snow Globe Base Deep-Etch Die
Manual Cutting Machine
Sequins and/or Themed Confetti
Iridescent Shred
Scissors
Needle

You will need to cut out one white plain circle and one vinyl scalloped circle. You also need to cut out two pink snow globe base pieces. For mine, I used the largest set of circles and the largest base, but you can also do this with the next size down for each set.

In fact, the smallest base also works with one of the smaller circles in the set, but you probably want to only use the plain circle for that.



Embroider a little face on one of the base pieces. You can use a pencil to mark the placement, but it's fine to just stitch this freehand. Here's my quick video tutorial on these faces!



Layer to felt and vinyl circles and stitch around them with running stitch. Use three strands of embroidery floss and follow the stitch markings on the vinyl piece.

Stop about two-thirds of the way around.



Add some sparkly filling to your crystal ball. Depending on what you're adding to yours, you may need to layer the filling or arrange it a bit before you close up the opening.



Finish stitching the circle and then go back opposite direction and fill in the gaps with running stitch.



Sandwich the circle between the two base pieces so it looks like the ball is resting on the base. Stitch around the base with running stitch, then go back in the opposite direction just as you did to sew around the circle.



To make the hanger, slide your threaded needle under two stitches at the top center of the crystal ball.



Tie the ends of the embroidery floss together with an overhand knot and trim the thread.



Now, let's look into the crystal ball and see what your future holds...I see...cute crafting ahead!



This crystal ball is a fun way to use the dies that I designed, but if you want to put them to work more in their intended way, head over to the Benzie blog where you'll find my tutorial for making Spooky Snow Globes! There's even a ghost pattern for you to work with, but you can make snow globes like this with almost all of my round felt ornament patterns.

There will be more of these snow globes popping up in my crafting for the foreseeable future...I know because it was in the crystal ball!