"Gilded" walnut ornaments

These adorable little ornaments are a throwback to years ago when people would decorate their trees with gilded fruits and nuts. Inside these cute, simple little ornaments is a fortune to be found when the nut is cracked open.

Materials and costs:

1 lb walnuts in their shells - $1.99
Gold paint - $1.49 per bottle, .25 bottle used for a total of $.37
1 sheet of paper - $.01
Gold ribbon, $1.99 per roll, 50% off making it $1.00 for the roll, 1/3 roll used for a total of $.33
Hot glue gun
1 glue stick - $.17
Green ribbon, $1.99 per roll, 50% off making it $1.00 for the roll, 1/3 roll used for a total of $.33

Cost for 16 ornaments - $3.20 or $.20 per ornament

Directions:

Very carefully split walnuts in half using a sharp knife. Use a butter knife to pull out nut meats and clear the shells.

Paint the outside of both halves of the walnut with gold paint and allow to dry.

Cut paper into thin strips about half an inch wide and 1.5 inches long. Use a marker or pen to write fortunes on the slips. These can be as simple or as complicated as you want. I went with simple.

You could also use carefully folded money or small trinkets depending on how elaborate you want to get with it.

Roll the fortunes up into tiny scrolls, and tie with a short piece of gold ribbon. Tuck into the walnut shell.

Using the hot glue gun, place a dot of glue at the top of one half of the shells. Loop the green ribbon around and secure both ends to the shell with the glue.

Use the glue gun to run a bead of glue around the edge of the shell, and carefully seal both halves of the shell back together.  They are now ready to hang on the tree! On Christmas morning, let the walnut hunt commence and seekers can crack the nuts open to find their fortune.