Good morning! I feel… refreshed.
I just took my pups to the groomer for their trim. They are pretty shaggy looking and they will come out looking like they each lost about 5 pounds of hair. My timing is not the best as the weather is getting a bit cooler now, however by the time we get into the real heart of a Minnesota winter they will be putting the coat back on and all will be fine to get to them their next cut in late February.
I have been promising all week that I was going to share the recipes and the crafts from my girls weekend last weekend and in my hustle and bustle of life I have managed to give you one recipe so far. GAH!
Today I will share with you the craft that I brought to the cabin for us to do, painting Christmas ornaments. Here we go!
Christmas ball ornament painting
You will need:
An assortment of glass ornaments like pictured above. The craft stores have some fun shapes – squares, tear drop, egg-shaped, heart-shaped, coin shaped, etc…. mix it up – it is fun
A variety of colors in craft paint (Delta ceramcoat works well,or any acrylic craft paint) **If the paint is too thick add a little water to the paint bottle and shake it well.
Pretty ribbon for the ornament to hang
assortment of items (optional) to hot glue on to the ornament such as: craft pine, craft berries, sequins…
To do this project, choose the colors you would like in your ornament… drip them down the side inside the glass ornament, not too heavy on the paint – you can always add more.
Some people like to slowly turn their ornament to let the paint run together to create the design – I take a napkin over the opening of the ornament and shake it to cover all the spaces inside with paint. If you have a spot that is still unpainted, set ornament down with that side as the bottom and the paint will eventually run to it – or I gently pat that part of the ornament until the paint fills in.
If there is excess paint inside your ornament we usually have a large ornament that we tip the excess paint into to create a “community ornament” which winds up with a mix of everyone’s excess paint – and usually turns out quite pretty.
You should let the ornaments dry out with their lid off for a day or so. (It still works if you do not have that kind of time to finish them)
Choose your ribbon and if you wish choose decorations for the outside of your ornaments as well.
These are fun and fairly easy to make, plus you can customize them for friends and family by using their colors of their home in the ornament, or decorating with their homes theme: woodsy, antique, modern, etc….
Ideas beyond the tree….
A few ideas we came up with besides putting these ornaments on the tree are
Put the ribbons at different lengths and hang them on the curtain rod in a window
make a large ornament and hang it off a hook
make a glass bowl centerpiece and fill it with the ornaments
Hang them from a stair railing
Have you made these? What ideas or tips can you share?
😀
Book Journey 
You’re so creative!
It was fun! 🙂
We’ve often ended up with a crystal dish of fancy ornaments, among our Christmas decorations. 🙂 Sometimes we work ornaments into a garland, as well — inside or outside.
I like the idea of the garland Hannah – I bet that is pretty!
It is! We made some ornaments this week, too. I’m thrilled by them! Hopefully we’ll share them soon.
Oh good! I will watch for your pictures! 😀
So pretty! I love this idea. It does sound like the perfect activity to do with a bunch of friends. I think my kiddos may even think it’s fun. Very cool!
It was fun to do as a group Danielle, I had never done that before and we all really enjoyed it. 🙂
Neat!!!! Not one I could do myself, but would be fun to supervise daughters and daughter-in-law. Nice girls activity.
Thanks Lori! I bet the daughters would enjoy this.
What a creative idea! I especially like the hanging ornaments in the last picture. I might have to add ornament painting to my holiday gift making program at the library. It looks like a lot of fun and the teens would enjoy it. Thanks for sharing!
It is fun Christina – I hope you do it! 🙂
Those are gorgeous! I like the idea of filling a bowl with them. Beautiful tabletop vignettes…
Have fun!
Thanks Laurel!
These are so pretty! What a great idea, and it sounds like something even the least-creative of us could easily do.
Exactly Alita – I am not crafty by no means, yet these I can do and have them actually turn out pretty enough to give as gifts.
I love them! I haven’t even started thinking about Thanksgiving – I’m so behind!
Me too Kathy – it will just be college son with us for Thanksgiving. We do not really do much here, dinner and movies…. maybe some board games. 🙂
Great ideas here. I purchase small sized clear glass ornaments and pour different color craft paints inside, then swirl around to create different effects. It’s a nice party activity too especially for people not crafty.
Thanks Rob!
These are so cute-I love Christmas crafts.
Thanks Esme – and they are easy to do, which appeals to me 😀
You know what’s really funny….because of how hectic work gets this time of year, the later it gets the less time I have to decorate…..well the tree went up yesterday, the wreath went up today and I will be doing the rest of it over time the next few days and on top of that I’ve been listening to Chrstmas music all day. I guess it’s time to break out the clear bulbs and craft paints now. Great post.
Wow Ryan – the tree is up? That’s impressive! I am usually Thanksgiving weekend.
Enjoy making the bulbs… 🙂
What a great, easy idea for our Craft Day! I’m going to run out to the craft store at the end of the month and pick up more paints and some clear glass ornament! I know the kids will love this!
Julie it is a fun project for any age! I usually hot glue the tops on when I am done so when they are being carried around by the ribbon the top does not come off and break the ornament.
When my oldest son was in kindergarten his teacher helped all of the kids make painted glass ornaments as presents for their moms. I always wondered how to make them, and was excited to see your post.
Sadly the ornament that he made broke a couple of years ago. It was so pretty!
They can turn out very pretty and I really like them Alyce – if you make some of these I would love to see pictures on your blog 🙂
These are so pretty and don’t seem too hard to make or do. This is a great idea for a fun craft night with the girls!
We had a lot of fun with these Kathleen and really you can get pretty creative beyond the paint if you wish. 🙂