Marble-painted Christmas Ornaments

Posted on November 16, 2020 by jewelsathome

So, with this being a low-key Christmas, I wasn’t sure if I was going to do new craft projects – I mean, other than the pastel Christmas village I made way back in January (dorky!) But blame Pinterest, I got the idea for these pretty marble-painted ornaments!

I used the tutorial from the Creativity Exchange as inspiration, and I adapted it to some clear plastic ornaments I already had.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Clear glass or plastic ornaments. I had these two-piece ornaments in the house already, but if you are starting from scratch, this style with the opening at the top will be easier to use and give a more polished finished product
Craft paints. You’ll need the most of the white color. I used three different colors for each ornament – white, a color, and a metallic paint
skewer or toothpick to mix the colors
Ribbon or ornament hanger

Here’s how to do it:

Squeeze a small amount of paint into your ornament (I put some in each side of the two-piece ornaments) – mostly white, with a bit of a color and a bit of metallic paint
To create flecks of color, you can splatter some paint (mine happened naturally, when I was at the end of a jar of paint, and it came out in small amounts) and let it dry a couple of minutes before starting to swirl the paint
Use a wooden skewer or toothpick to swirl the paints gently – don’t overmix, as the colors will continue to marble in the next steps
For the two-piece ornaments, I closed the ornament and slowly rotated it to let the paint marble. To let the paint slowly fill the open areas, I rested the ornaments on top of my paint bottles, with the open area at the bottom. For the one-piece ornaments, after rotating a few times, you can rest it upside down over a paper cup to let the extra paint drip out
Once my two-piece ornaments were completely painted, I opened them back up to let the paint try, careful to keep the two matching halves together
Once your paint is dry, you can reassemble your ornaments and add a hanger!
I love that this is one of those projects where every result is different, and you can’t go wrong!

Here are some pictures of the finished ornaments. Looking forward to putting together our pastel-and-metallic Christmas decorations soon!

Julie aka “Jewels”

DIY Marbled Clay Ring Dishes

Posted on May 21, 2019 by jewelsathome

Here is version two of these DIY clay ring dishes! First, I made some in white with stamped designs. I love how those look, but keeping the white clay as clean as possible is a bit stressful. The marbled dishes, on the other hand, are so addictive and relaxing!

ezy watermark_24-05-2019_05-33-05pm

Here’s what you’ll need:

Premo Sculpey in a coordinating colors (approximately 2oz per bowl)
Rolling pin or smooth glass jar
Parchment paper or wax paper
Circle to trace (approximately 4″)
Bowl or other oven-safe mold
Optional: sandpaper
Paint brush
Gold paint
Clear glossy varnish

Here’s how to do it:

Make strips of clay in each color you want to include. Twist and roll them together until you get the amount of mixing you want.

Using a parchment or wax paper work surface, roll the marbled clay flat – about 1/4″ thick

Cut out the circle – you can take the cut-off edges and add them to your next marbled bowl, so each one is unique!

Place your circle on your mold – I tried it on the outside of a bowl, but I think inside would be better, if you have the right size, because the mold indented the surface slightly

Bake according to the instructions for the clay

Let it cool, and sand rough edges
Paint rim with gold paint
Coat with clear varnish

Here are some progress shots and the final products!

Here is how to start the marbling process: ezy watermark_13-05-2019_06-01-26pm

This is what the bowls looked like out of the oven.

ezy watermark_13-05-2019_08-55-52pm

Next step: gold paint on the rim!

Last step: clear gloss varnish!

I’m seriously addicted to making these bowls… can you guess what’s up next?!

Julie aka “Jewels”

Retro Cottage Kitchen Design

Posted on January 25, 2016 by jewelsathome

I mostly blog for myself – as motivation to finish projects and to put something pretty out into the world. As the blog has grown, it has one of the best experiences to connect with other people all over the world who … Continue reading →

Ensuite with a View

Posted on June 26, 2012 by jewelsathome

As I mentioned in the room tour of our nursery, we did a major renovation after we bought our house last year. As part of that, we converted the “dressing room” off the master bedroom into our ensuite bath and created a new bedroom where the old master bath was. The new master bath has some of the best views in the house, making it a lovely place to start and end the day. Links to the DIY projects in this room are at the bottom of this post.

Before:

Before: This dressing room was pretty but not a good use of space.

As the former dressing room, this is not a big space. Still, we managed to fit in our whole wish list: soaking tub, separate shower, double vanity with medicine cabinets and lots of storage. (We just moved from a house that was built with a stand-alone sink and no vanity or medicine cabinet in every bathroom! A cool look in concept, but ultimately, it meant that we had clutter and extra storage crammed into the spaces.

The tour:

I do love the white or espresso vanities that are so popular, but I wanted to do something a little different, so we chose this warm natural oak with simple shaker doors. A secret: the vanity is actually made from Ikea kitchen cabinets!