It’s always fun to ring in a new year, but what sets a New Year’s party apart from all the others might just be the amount of sparkle and shine in the décor. In this article, we’ll show how to DIY some of the simplest glittery New Year’s Eve celebration decorations, so you can save your time and energy for enjoying the festivities.

These four DIY projects (New Year glitter candles, confetti balloons, gilded champagne flutes, and shimmery star garland) will add a festive touch to your New Year’s Eve party. Enjoy!

DIY New Year Glitter Candles

This DIY project is fast, simple, and effective for a great party experience.

DIY Level: Easy

Materials Needed:

Clear contact paperPrint-out of new year’s numbersRazor blade or Xacto knifeMod podge + foam brushGlitterCutting boardFour candles

Begin by stapling (somewhat generously) your contact paper directly above your printed out digits. Make sure the clear part (not the paper backing) is facing upward when you staple this, so that your numbers will be facing the right direction.

Lay out a cutting board (or scrap piece of smooth plywood). Place your stapled papers on top of this cutting board.

Grab your razor blade (tip: make sure the blade is perfectly sharp, or this will be a frustrating project), and begin carefully cutting out the contact paper, guided by the printed out numbers underneath.

When you cut with a razor blade, don’t hesitate to maneuver your cutting papers so you are always pulling the blade downward. Don’t try to get fancy with this – for safety purposes, shift the paper to suit your control.

After you’ve cut it out, set the number aside and move onto the next one until you’ve cut out all four numbers.

Carefully peel the backing off the contact paper.

Align, center, and place the contact paper number onto your candle.

Use your fingernails to gently (don’t dent the candle wax) press down the edges of your contact paper. This is similar to what you’d do with painter’s tape if you were painting. You want to seal the edges.

Dip your foam brush into mod podge and get ready to brush it onto the side of your candle. Make sure you have some paper or something underneath your workspace, as it’s about to get glitterized in a major way.

Work in sections of about 1/3 of the candle at one time, and brush oh a moderate amount of mod podge. When you’re “painting” around your contact paper, however, try to keep the middle of the contact paper free of mod podge. This is mainly so you can find the contact paper later; believe me, it gets tricky to find it again after the glitter is applied.

Working quickly, shake the glitter over and over your mod podged area. You want the glitter to be super thick, because this is what will showcase your numbers the best.

As soon as you’ve solidified the glitter over your mod podged section, simply rotate the candle a bit and foam brush some more mod podge onto the next third (or so) of your candle. Be sure to apply mod podge over the end section that you just finished; this will cover some glitter bits along the edge, but mod podge dries clear, so it’ll make the transition seamless in the long run. Also, I noticed the mod podge would sort of bead up on parts of my candle, which left tiny sections of bare candle. I simply spread a little extra mod podge over those sections (even after glitter was applied) and shake more glitter over top.

As soon as you’ve covered the entire candle in glitter, before the mod podge dries, it’s time to remove the contact paper number. Use the tip of your razor blade to raise an edge of the contact paper.

Pull the contact paper off completely. For best results, pull the contact paper off at an angle so it doesn’t peel up any mod podge.

Viola! A glitterized candle that looks amazing!

Continue on, repeating all these steps, for every candle.

I have to say, as far as DIY projects go, this one is just so much fun to create!

Set these sparkly, glittery candles onto your New Year’s Eve party refreshment table, or on the mantel, or anywhere where lighted candles will be safe. Then let them ring in the new year along with you. So fun.

Have a wonderfully sparkling (and safe) New Year!

DIY Confetti Balloons

Materials Needed:

White pearl balloonsSequins or glitterSmall-nosed funnelBike pump (optional)

Stick a balloon onto the nose of the funnel.

This example uses sequins, not glitter, because sequins are easier to clean up than glitter due to the static factor.

However, this also means that they don’t stick as easily and consistently to the sides of the balloons’ insides as glitter does, so choose your balloon filling based upon what you’re going for.

Get your balloon fillings into a bowl and mix, if needed.

Have an eager helper hold the balloon securely to the funnel. (Or do it yourself. But if there’s a 4-year-old within a block radius, chances are, you’ve got yourself an eager helper.)

Pour the sequins/glitter into the balloon through the funnel until you have enough filling in the balloon to meet your needs.

This example used about a tablespoon’s worth of filling (sequins) inside each balloon. (Note: This seemed perfect, based upon a premature celebratory balloon’s popping and the resulting sequin explosion. But modify as you want.)

Blow up the balloon yourself, use helium, or hook it up to a bike pump (*winner!*) to fill it.

I love the way the rainbow sequins look through the white pearl balloons. Very festive.

If you notice the sequins settling on the bottom of your balloon(s), there’s an easy way to spread them around the inside of the balloon and have them stick there for awhile.

Simply rub the balloon on something that will increase its static electricity – your head or a wool rug, for example.

That static will help the sequins (which are heavier than glitter) stick to the sides, which makes no difference when it comes time for the balloons to explode but looks more festive until that point.

With a confetti balloon for everyone, you’re set to ring in the new year.

DIY Gilded Champagne Flutes

Note: I’ve seen lots of tutorials for prepping real glass champagne flutes for a new year’s eve (or similar) party, but I didn’t want to mess with our glass stemware. So I bought a pack of plastic wine glasses at a party supply store and will show how to bedazzle those for your New Year’s Eve celebration. Because, really, these seem like a one-time use thing to me.

Grab some painter’s tape and tape off the top 3/4″ of your glass (which is plastic). This doesn’t have to be an exact distance – the idea is to provide enough blank space for your lips so you’re not drinking glitter when toasting time comes.

I found it difficult to line up the two ends of the tape precisely when they met on the other side of the glass. No worries; just wrap the tape to line up as best as you can.

Then rip a smaller piece, 2”-3” long, and lay it over the uneven connection to make it as smooth and flat as you can. It may not be perfect, but it’ll be good enough if you can get it flat.

Use your fingernail to secure the edge of your painter’s tape to the glass, all the way around.

Take some glitter glue. I chose gold glitter glue instead of mod podge here because I wanted some fine gold glitter along the lower part of the glass, where the bigger glitter wasn’t added. This variance helps with the ombre effect, from heavy glitter up top down to fine glitter below.

Dip a foam pouncer or foam brush into the glitter glue.

Spread the gold glitter glue all over the outside of your glass.

It’ll probably look a little messy at this point, but don’t worry. You won’t notice the bumps as far as I can tell.

Hold the stump of your glass (where the stem will attach later), and tip it on its side. Gently pour glitter over the glass in a controlled way so the most glitter lands nearer the top of your glass and less glitter lands near the bottom.

Spin the glass around, shaking the glitter on in this way, until you’ve completed the whole glass. Check for consistency in your ombre glitter coverage.

Gently tap the stump on your newspaper to remove any excess glitter.

Flip the glass upside down, and set it down while you work on the other glasses.

When you’ve completed all four glasses, but before the glitter glue dries completely, you’ll want to remove the painter’s tape. Pull it off at about a 45-degree angle from the surface of your glass.

Let the glass dry, then attach the stem to each glass stump.

Raise a glass to a DIY project completed!

Here’s a closer look at the gilded appeal.

These are perfect for anyone who’s celebrating, even children! So fancy.

My household is smitten with these fun DIY gilded glitter party glasses.

DIY Shimmery Star Garland

Acquire a shimmery, glittery bit of paper for this next project. I recommend this glitter paper roll because it’s perfectly golden on the outside…

…and glittery silver on the inside. You’ll want both sides of your garland to sparkle, so if your paper is only shiny on one side, you’ll need to cut out twice as many stars and attach them back-to-back.

Grab the largest star punch you can get your hands on.

Use the star punch to cut out billions and billions of stars. Okay, maybe not billions. But seriously. Settle in. You’re (probably) going to want lots.

Be sure to empty your star punch often to keep it from getting jammed.

When you have a pile that looks sufficient, you can start putting your garland together.

Thread some neutral, light thread onto your sewing machine. (This example uses a kind of khaki tan color of thread, which was a good compromise for both the gold and silver.) Pull out about 10” or so of thread at the start so you have some thread to tie the garland onto something if you are so inclined.

Sew the stars together with the largest baste stitch your machine can do. Space them as you want; this example used about a 1/2″ space between each star. Also, it doesn’t matter if you sew them all with the same sides facing up; the thread will spin the garland anyway, so you’ll end up seeing both sides no matter what you do. If you’re doubling up your stars because the back side isn’t sparkly, be sure to do that as you’re sewing here.

Keep the garland from getting tangled on itself as you’re sewing.

Sew until you’re done. You can do multiple garlands to hang as a sort of photo booth backdrop, you can sew one giant long garland to hang on the mantel (doubled or tripled up), or you can sew them in whatever formation brings you joy.

I love the perfect imperfection of this starry garland. It’s perfect for a new year’s eve party, but it’s also versatile – it would work great at a birthday party, too, or graduation celebration.

However you choose to display your sparkly star garland, be sure to store it securely, wrapped around a large piece of cardboard with the stars lying flat so they don’t get bent.

I like the garland draped over a mirror, which is where it’s landed at my house. For today. Because these things tend to travel around.

Have AVery Happy New Year!