DIY glittery Death Star holiday tree topper

This year, my fiance and I welcomed our very first full-size Christmas tree into our lives! His name is Patrick Swayze and he’s beauuuuuutiful. Being incredible nerds, I took advantage of the opportunity to craft this Death Star tree topper. AND IT WAS SO EASY. And now you can do the same thing, if you want!

What you need:

• Plastic or glass round ornament. Ours is about four inches in diameter. I was looking for a six-inch ornament but couldn’t find one to buy on its own. (Psst: you can get them in packs of six at Target if you want multiple Death Stars, or want to make this as a gift.)
• Black acrylic paint
• Painter’s tape or masking tape
• Mod Podge. Regular school glue would probably work fine as well.
• Silver glitter

What you do:

Yank the hanging apparatus out of the top of the ornament so you can get at its insides. Discard this if you’re making a topper. Hang onto it if you’re making an ornament.

Pour a little bit of black acrylic paint into the mouth of the ornament. Start with a little, then add more if you need.

Shake or roll the ornament around to coat the entire inside in a layer of black paint.

Prop the ornament up on something to let it drain out and let the inside dry. A plastic cup works well. It may take a long time for the inside to dry, but you won’t be touching the inside at all so you can go ahead to the next step if you want.

Cut your masking tape or painters tape into super skinny strips if it’s not already super skinny. Then start marking out the lines of the Death Star. You definitely need one line around its belly and the superlaser, but the rest of it you can do however you like—it’s just a lot of different-sized rectangles. Put the superlaser on the side opposite the mouth if you’re making a topper, on the same side as the mouth if you’ll be using this as an ornament.

Something I figured out while I was taping was to make little “tags” with the end of the tape so it was easier to pull off. Just fold a little bit over at the end of each piece of tape.

There are two options to apply glitter. I slathered my taped-up ornament with Mod Podge and poured glitter on, but you could also mix the Mod Podge and glitter together and paint it on. I think the latter might be a bit neater, but you’ll want a really high glitter-to-Mod Podge ratio unless you’re planning on doing several coats. Make sure your tags are sticking up so they are easy to see and there aren’t any blank spots.

Let this dry for a long time. I let mine dry for half an hour and it was not enough. If I make another, I am going to try to wait at least an hour. This time also lets the inside dry some more too.

Pull the tape off (this is where the tags are AWESOME) to reveal your sick Death Star pattern. You may need to patch up the glitter or scrape it off with your fingernail in a few places (I did). I also used a tiny paintbrush to clean out the pattern, but that’s not necessary; it’s loose glitter that will fall off eventually anyway.

Stick your topper on the tree, or reinsert the hanging apparatus and hang it. Prepare for incessant “That’s no moon!” quotes for the rest of the holiday season.