Two Christmases ago I made these Moose/Winter/Canadian themed ornaments for my boyfriend’s family. (One for his mum’s family, one for his dad’s family and one for each of his grandparents). Now that we have our own place and Christmas tree I can’t wait to make a lovey-dovey ornament for our tree!
Here is how you can make your own DIY ball ornament:
What you need:
- -Clear plastic or glass ball ornament (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Walmart, etc,.)
- -Acrylic paint
- -Gold or silver Sharpie marker
- -paint brushes
- -ribbon
- -A stencil (or sticker paper if you are making your own)
- -Any other decoration you’d like to add (I added a row of faux diamonds)
- -A hair dryer
- -Styrofoam cups
STEPS:
1. wash your ornament with soap and water and leave it tipped upside-down to dry.
2. squirt a small amount of paint into your ornament and bang it against your palm to spread. Continue to add small dabs of paint and spread it by smacking it into your palm until the whole inside is evenly covered. This takes about 10 minutes.
3. ***Dry the inside of the ornament with a hair dryer.** This is VERY important! I left mine upside-down in a Styrofoam cup to dry (as per the instructions I was given) and the paint was still wet and moving around leaving clear patches for a month. A simple five minutes with a hair dryer per ornament makes a world of difference. After that leave them upside-down in a Styrofoam cup for a day or so to make sure they are dry.
4. Once the inside is dry, make a stencil or freehand your design. I printed out a moose, drew it onto sticker paper, cut it out, threw away the moose bit and used the outline. I had trouble getting it to stick onto the ornament because the ornament is round and the sicker paper was quite rigid so I had to paint the first half, let it dry, then paint the bottom half of the moose. Then peel your sticker paper back and voila!
5. I used the back of my paintbrush to add the snowflakes. Once dry you can scrape away any parts of your design that aren’t perfect. I find a tiny corner of damp paper towel under your fingernail works great. I did alot of this to my moose.
6. Stick or hot glue gun any other decorations you’d like to add to your ornament.
7. I used a silver Sharpie to add on the back: “To ________ and _______. Merry Christmas! Love, Alanna 2013” It’s always nice to add the year.
8. Now just attach the top of your ornament back on (you might want to hot glue gun it). Tie some nice ribbon on for hanging, and you’re done!
Can you spot the ornament in this photo from Christmas 2014? 🙂 You probably can as my sweetie didn’t tell me his family’s trees all have a colour scheme, none of which include red! Ah well, it’s the thought 😉
ldr13 