Copper Ornaments from?

Since I'm crazy about copper and we live in Michigan's Copper Country, I wanted some copper ornaments for our Christmas tree in the great room. I've looked in our local stores and checked on the Internet for something acceptable to purchase without offending my frugal nature. No luck. I was in a store recently when I had one of those slap-your-forehead moments. 

I already had some of these clear ornaments from Dollar Tree. . .

and I paid a buck for this pack of kitchen scourers/scrubbers. Now, let's see if this will work.

I began to unroll one of the scrubbers. It was partially separated near the center, so I used my scissors to snip it the rest of the way. 

I then rolled that piece back into a tube - giving me 2 circular tubes.

Next, I cut each circle - giving me 2 long pieces - and stuffed them into an ornament. Hmm. Didn't really care for the effect, as it left too many large gaps along the inside of the ornament. I used a tweezers to pull the copper mesh back out of the ornament.

Using my trusty scissors, I cut the 2 tubes into smaller pieces - each about 3/4" long. (Yeah, it left tiny copper pieces and copper dust on my work surface, but I vacuumed it up when I was finished.)

Time to start stuffing again. 

Got some great texture going on here. That's what I'm talking about! 

I used one scrubber for each ornament. If I had some shiny copper spray paint on hand, I would have painted the ornament tops. I may do that next year. (Update: After putting them on the tree, I liked the silver tops, so I won't paint them. Also, after making these, I bought some clear ornaments at Walmart - a tub of 6 for $3.97. They're a bit larger than the ones from Dollar Tree, so you'll need 1-1/2 scrubbers per ornament. They're also glass, so they look a little nicer.)

I do have some shiny copper cord, so I'll use that when I hang them on the tree next week.

This project was very fast - very simple - and very inexpensive. Love those words!

11/28/16
Update:  I put one on the tree tonight to check it out with the lights. Yes, it surely sparkles! Working on our tree and some other Christmas projects this week.

All is well in the Keweenaw.