Decorate Your Own Christmas Ornaments

Decorating Christmas Ornaments is Fun and Creates Memories

Hand-Painted Ornaments

This is the first project I did in response to a reader’s request for ideas to put images on Christmas ornaments. It is also the most obvious: hand paint your designs.

If your reaction is, "Not me. I can’t even draw a straight line!" please read on.

Many traditional Christmas images are very simple in form or are often rendered in simple form; for example Christmas wreaths, Christmas trees, stars, snowflakes, holly and poinsettias.

You can stylize your drawing to make them even simpler. My poinsettia doesn’t look much like a real poinsettia, but it is surely recognizable.

Hand Painted Christmas Ornament Materials

• Plastic ornaments
• #6 or 8 flat brush (such as Winsor & Newton Monarch available at Mister Art
• Delta Air Dry Enamel Paints
• Black permanent marker - optional
• Water and paper towel for touch-ups and brush rinsing
• An egg carton or paint palette with wells to stabilize the balls while the paint dries

Instructions

One nice thing about painting on plastic or glass is that you can easily wipe away mistakes. Wipe the ornament to remove any dirt and oil.

Paint one color at a time and let dry for one hour between coats. If you want your design to have more definition, outline and add detail with black permanent marker.