Those gaudy holiday-colored glass balls can actually be bleached to remove the color and then recolored and used for beautiful handmade ornaments.
Remove the cap and wire from each ornament, then fill the kitchen sink with two gallons of cool water and two caps full of liquid bleach. Submerse each ornament in the water, so the bleach water gets inside, where the paint is. Allow the ornaments to soak for 10 to 15 minutes, and then rinse them with running water. The paint generally just rinses away. Invert each ball over an egg carton or a kitchen towel to dry.
To recolor, you can paint them by hand with a curved brush or drip the paint into the hole, adding water or glitter to create sparkles or varying levels of color.
Alternatively, you can fill the balls with glitter and glue, or stuff them with pine needles, dried flower petals or confetti.
Replace the caps and wires and hang them from the tree, or use hot glue to affix each ball to a teeny bulb on a string of lights, for a breathtaking illuminated glass ball decoration.
Using a small glass ball, such as a marble, create a wire-wrapped jewelry pendant. Begin by creating a twisted "x" from your wire. Try using a dab of hot glue to adhere the glass ball--you can scrape the glue away afterward, but using it now will keep your marble from rolling away. Once it's secured, bring the wire up and twist them all together at the top into a rope, then loop them around so a necklace can be strung through them. If you've used hot glue, scrape it away with a craft knife.
Use small- to medium-sized clear or colored glass balls for this craft. Place a layer of glass balls along the bottom of the bowl and fill it halfway with water. Place a floating candle in the water and put it in the center of the table. You can sprinkle the top of the water with flower petals or place the fishbowl on a mirrored tray to intensify the glow of the candle. Use two to three candles for more light.