Always a holiday staple for those who wish to create a custom ornament look, those blank glass balls you can get at crafts stores are such a blank canvas to start with! This post can hopefully give you a few design ideas to create your own color palette and design direction. Read onward for my white, gold, and silver theme, and take a look at my crafty roundup from across the web to see other glass ornaments that I thought turned out well.
These craft staples are pretty easy to make; the only advice that I have is to pick a color palette to start with and stay within that color palette, that way you get a uniform group of ornaments no matter how you decorate them.
I chose white, gold, and silver with some added sparkle.
- Tools I found useful:
- paintbrush (stet of 10 for $1 at the dollar store)
- glitter glue ($1 at the dollar store)
- glitter paint (I bought my set from Home Depot for $10 last year; martha stewart has a similar line. I love these paints)
- set of 6 glass ornaments ($5 Michael’s)
- tape or stickers if you want to end up with clear spots
- Krylon Glitter Blast(tm) Glitter Spray
I wasn’t really sure what direction I was going to go in, so this picture features all the stuff I put together that I thought I might use for this.
So I just played around with these once I chose some colors I liked. I used the internet for inspiration: if you scroll down to the bottom I have included pictures of some of my favorites.
Tips
Use the tray that the balls come in to help you paint all the way around a ball; for my polkadot balls I painted half of the ball, and then placed it in the tray until dry, and then I painted the other half
I used the tray to stage putting on my glitter paint. Here you can see my polkadot ball mid-paint, and the two balls that I used the glitter spray on. I taped a layer around the one ball so that I could have a clear stripe on the final product.
With spray glitter, don’t overspray, and spray from a distance. I sprayed a little too much on my “joy” ball and it is a little lumpy and dried funny. I’m kind of bummed because I thought it was going to be gorgeous #craftfail
Sometimes the easiest designs are the prettiest!
DIY: Marbled paint ball
1.) Pick out some paint colors that you like together
2.) Take off the little hanger cover on top of the ball
3.) Pour paint in to your ball one color at a time and swirl it around
4.) Voila! Marbled paint ball! You can also use a cotton swab to help things along inside.
Just using a paint brush and painting on designs that you like can look really classy as well!
I used my favorite paint colors and painted some polka dots on this one:
In the end, even though I did each ball slightly differently with completely varied results, the final 6 look unified because they are all in the same color range. Use the color wheel to pick out a color palette!
Here’s a quick craft roundup from around the web of ornaments that I really enjoyed looking at, and thought about creating for my tree:
Painted glass ornaments; pour paint inside and swab with cotton ball for this effect! Source: suburbanspunkdesign
Modge-podge some printed paper on to ornaments and paint with a little glitter for these babies! Source: johnsrefuse.com
Got some cute stickers or cutouts? Use a matte spray from the craft store over a sticker for these classic gems. Source: 221vision.com
Feeling a little fun? Like Glitter? Check out these guys! Source: greenhornedunicorn.com
Classy decoration option that utilizes the clear parts of the ornaments in a very pretty way! Source: babble.com
Pick out your colors using the color wheel!
Click here for yesterday’s 6-pointed Snowflake DIY!
Or Sunday’s Hot Toddies and Christmas Scent!