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 Knitted Sweater Ornaments

Posted on November 21, 2019 by jewelsathome

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t be calling them ornaments, because I am pretending that I am being seasonally appropriate and not decorating for Christmas yet, but I think we all know the truth… So, you may have seen that I … Continue reading →

DIY Hand-Painted Chinoiserie Christmas Ornaments

Posted on December 28, 2018 by jewelsathome

For this year’s Chinoiserie Christmas, I mostly used decorations I already had from our “white and woodsy Christmas,” with the addition of these hand-drawn ornaments! This post is coming late, because it took me all month to finish these ornaments, … Continue reading →

Paper and Washi Tape Globe Ornaments

Posted on December 5, 2015 by jewelsathome

My passion for pretty papers goes way back, but I confess that when washi tape first became popular, I didn’t immediately fall in love – it’s not too late, though! I had so much fun combining patterns and colors to make these pretty ornaments. These lovely decorations are quick to make, and I will be bringing this project to work for our holiday party. I also made a personalized version of these ornaments with kids’ names inside.

To make these ornaments, I used

Clear Plastic Ball Ornaments
2.25-Inch Circle Paper Punch
Scrapbook paper. This is a great project for using small leftover pieces of paper
Washi tape and other embellishments
Glue stick
Ribbon for hanging

The process is very simple:

I then cut out two circles in matching paper and glued then back-to-back
I then added washi tape or other paper scraps to decorate the ornament
These circles fit perfectly into the ornaments, which snap together
Add a ribbon for hanging and you’re done!

Go crazy with the paper (I did!) and have fun!!

“Jewels”

Retro Mid-Century Ornament Wreath

Posted on November 13, 2015 by jewelsathome

So, if you have been following along, you will know that I have a colorful Mid-Century Christmas planned for this year. So far, my preparations have included a new Christmas tree skirt, and next up was this pretty ornament wreath!

I found a lot of beautiful inspirations for this type of wreath, including some beautiful and whimsical examples from Georgia Peachez.

There are a lot of different methods out there for making ornament wreaths, and I read through several examples before starting my own.

I used a piece of foam leftover from another project as my wreath base. It was flexible, but once the ornaments were glued in place, it held its shape. I used a piece of heavy beading wire to create a hanger on the back, before I started attaching the ornaments.

To attach the ornaments, I hot-glued a ring of the large balls in this year’s colors of pink, turquoise, and red around the entire outside and inside of the wreath base. I then added a few large ornaments to the top and filled in with medium and smaller ornaments. I included a few pine cone ornaments to change up the look. Also, I kept the hangers visible on a handful of the ornaments for more visual interest.

Some methods include tinsel on the base or painting the base. Since I didn’t do either, I needed to make sure I filled all the gaps, so I finished off the wreath with some vase filler and large beads. This is definitely one of those projects, like L’s birthday quilt, where it takes a long time and a lot of planning to make it look “random.” By the time I went to bed, I was seeing ornaments float before my eyes…

But it was all worth it! I am not decorating quite yet, so for now, the wreath is adding some cheer to my craft room window, and as Nicola said when she came over for our recent Creativity Circle, it looks pretty good there!

With the new tree skirt and this wreath, I think I am well on my way to creating this year’s theme, but I do still have a few projects I’d like to add, if time allows! Looking forward to seeing it all come together!

“Jewels”

Felt Poinsettia Ornaments

Posted on December 10, 2013 by jewelsathome

I grew up in Canada, so Christmas was associated with cool temperatures, bare branches, and as often as not, snow on the ground. Even my kids, who grew up in California, ask for snow at Christmas. So, I decided to create a snowy Christmas for us at home.

I pared down my decorations to focus on the white and silver. I also made several new projects in a white and woodsy theme. So far, I’ve finished a sleek new gray and white Christmas tree skirt, and I also made some new pillow covers in white and gray with outdoorsy appliques of reindeer, polar bears, and trees.

Since I kept our colorful ornaments packed up for this year, I needed to add some more decorations to our tree. The kids helped me make these sweet clay ornaments, and I am adding these white felt poinsettia ornaments to fill in the branches.

I looked at lots of pictures of real and felt flowers, and I read a lot of tutorials, trying to find felt poinsettias that would have a natural look. My final project was a combination of the felt poinsettia pin by Cheryl at her Tidy Mom blog, Kate’s felt poinsettia’s at her Centsational Girl blog, and my own innovation, as I wanted to make the flowers a bit more natural-looking and just right for my tree!

The thing I liked best about Cheryl’s flowers was how she cut the petals. It’s much faster and easier than using a template, and it allows you to make each petal a little bit unique. I used different dimensions, which I’ll list below, and I also cut my petals with a bit of a wave on the edge, to give them more dimension.

I washed and dried my felt before using it, to make it a bit thicker. To cut the petals, first cut rectangles of felt in the specified dimensions, and then trim them to look like petals. It’s very quick to cut the rectangles, if you cut the felt into strips first (left side of the picture below) and then cut the strips into rectangles (middle of the picture below). I was also able to trim the petals three at a time, so it was all much easier than I expected!

Each flower is constructed the same way, and I’ll give the exact measurements for my two sizes below.

The basic parts of the felt poinsettia are

a round circle base (top left picture below)
a layer of large petals (top right and bottom left pictures below)
a layer of small petals (bottom right picture below)

DIY felt poinsettia Christmas decorations to use as ornaments, gift toppers, or around the house | Jewels at Home

Start with a round base, add a layer of large petals, and top with a layer of smaller petals.

To finish the flower, I sewed all the layers together while sewing on some pearl beads to decorate the center of the poinsettia. I then used hot glue to attache the flower to a metal alligator clip.

Finish the flower by sewing the layers together while sewing on some beads for the center.

The pictures above are of the larger poinsettias. The finished size is approximately 6.5″ in diameter. The large flower uses:

2″ diameter base circle
8 large petals of 3.5″ x 2″
5 small petals of 2.5″ x 1.5″
7 beads
metal alligator clip

I also made smaller poinsettias, with a finished size of approximately 4.75″. The small flower uses:

1.5″ diameter base circle
6 large petals of 2.5″x1.5″
5 small petals of 1.75″ x 1″
5 beads
metal alligator clip

Here are the large and small flowers side by side.

And here are the new poinsettias on our tree!

Hooray for a project that was even more easy and fun than I had expected! If I get enough of these for the tree, they may start showing up elsewhere in our house! Or that may be crazy-talk!

“Jewels”