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Christmas Ornament Tips

Some Ornament Making Tips

Hi Eileen! I was very excited to receive your e-mail about the Christmas ornaments you were working on!

I checked them out and I think the one with the poinsettia was very pretty, but you’re a better artist than I.

I was mostly impressed by the decoupage series. Although all your work was quite good, these appeared to me as the prettiest.

You have me thinking. I would like to find a clear hard coat finish I could dip the ornament in after applying the image to it.

Then lightly sprinkle glitter on the rest of the ornament the same color as the ornament then dip it a second time in a clear coat so the glitter would be inside the finish.

Use my own series of images I create on my computer, maybe a snowman series, wildlife series, children, kittens. Before the clear coat sign the ornament?

What would you suggest to use as a crystal clear, hard coat liquid I could dip the ornament in to seal everything and create a hard shiny finish? (or spray)

You really have me thinking! Thanks for all your hard work creating these ornament ideas.

Wish I could find some clear glass ornaments I could use templates and lightly sand blast them creating a frosted image?

Thanks for all the great ideas!

Marion

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Thank you for the compliments. I had fun working on the ornaments. I have one more idea in mind but am waiting for materials to arrive by mail.

I think it will allow us to transfer our own designs from our computers and mold them to the rounded shape of the ornaments. I don’t want to say more until I know for sure.

The decoupage works pretty well, but you do usually end up with a few creases. Plus, I couldn’t find any material I could print onto and then decoupage; so that I would have total control over the design and could really personalize the ornaments.

I can’t think of any glaze you could dip ornaments into. There are pourable clear epoxies that give a thick clear coat like for bar and table tops.

However it is very thick so would be difficult to dip something into. As well, I think it would run and drip off a rounded shape because it is designed to be self-leveling.

But I do have some ideas for you.

What you describe sounds lovely. Here are my thoughts on what might work.

Create your design, including your signature, on the computer. Print it onto a medium that you can transfer to the ornament. [Hopefully I’ll have the perfect medium to tell you about very soon.] You could also hand sign the ornament at this point using a permanent marker.

That’s how I added detail to the poinsettia ornament.

To apply glitter to the non-image areas, use the technique in my directions for glittered ornaments except, instead of painting the entire ball with white glue, paint only where you want the glitter.

Spray with several coats of Krylon Crystal Clear.

Once the glitter is well-adhered, you might be able to thicken the coating by dipping the ornament into a non-yellowing varnish like DecoArt DuraClear Poly Varnish .

Hold the ornament and turn it until it stops dripping. Then hang to dry.

As for frosting glass ornaments, do you know there are glass etching kits that allow you to do just that? Plus they are very easy to use.

The last time I was in a Michael’s, they had a large selection of clear undecorated glass ball ornaments.

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