Hand-painted Glass Ornaments
Introduction: Hand-painted Glass Ornaments
Customized Christmas ornaments are a fun and easy craft to get you into the holiday spirit. You can paint any design you can imagine, but today I'll be showing you three simple designs as inspiration!
Step 1: Gather Materials
I'm going to show you how to do three styles of ornaments, all of different difficulties. The materials you'll need for each are below:
For all ornaments:
- Clear Glass Ornaments
- Nail Polish
- Small Containers to Hold the Ornaments (glass yogurt containers work well)
- String
- Scissors
- Glossy or Matte Sealant Spray
1. Additional Materials for Opal Ornament:
- Rainbow Nail Polishes (red, orange, yellow, green, 2-3 blues, purple)
- Iridescent Flakes/Nail Polish Topper
- Cosmetic Sponges
2. Christmas Candy Ornament:
- Acrylic Paint (white, black, red, green, brown)
- Small Paint Brushes
3. Rudolph Ornament:
- Acrylic Paint (brown, orange, red, yellow, black, white, pink)
- Small Paint Brushes
- Small Iridescent Glitter (optional)
- Mod Podge or Craft Glue (optional)
Step 2: Set Up Your Ornaments
You'll first want to remove the metal tops from your ornaments and set them up on your containers. The containers should be something you won't want to use again for anything else (they'll have nail polish in them by the end of this project), and they should have rims small enough that the ornaments can sit on them comfortably without falling inside them.
Step 3: Pour Nail Polish in Ornaments
For each style of ornament, you'll begin by pouring nail polish inside and swirling it around to coat the entire interior of the ornament. You can use whatever polish you'd like for the Candy and Rudolph ornaments, but the Opal one works best with a medium blue base.
For mine, I used a medium blue creme for the Opal, silver holographic glitter for the Candy, and light blue shimmer for <PERSON>.
Step 4: Pour Out Excess Polish
Set the ornaments on their sides on top of the containers for a minute to let the nail polish pool, and then pour the excess polish back into your bottle.
Step 5: Leave the Polish to Dry
Turn the ornaments upside down (with the opening facing into the container), and leave them to dry. The remaining excess polish will slowly drip out of the ornaments, leaving an even coating inside. 95
I'd recommend leaving them to dry for a day or two. Once it has dried, you may find that the polish isn't opaque enough, so feel free to repeat this process until you're satisfied with the outcome. If any polish has stuck to the lip of the ornament, gently wipe it off with a paper towel.
Your ornaments are now ready to design.
Step 6: Cut Up Makeup Sponges
We'll start with the simplest ornament, the Opal ornament. This one requires no actual hand-painting, but you'll need some basic supplies.
The first thing you'll want to do is cut up cosmetic sponges into small pieces - you'll need one for each color of nail polish you'll be using.
Step 7: Dab Polish Onto Ornament
Apply your first color of polish to one of the pieces of sponge. You'll then use the sponge to gently dab the polish onto the outside of the ornament. Your first coat likely won't be very opaque, but leave it for now and come back to it once you've added all your colors.
Step 8: Add Polish Until It Is Opaque
Create a random pattern with your polishes, dabbing on each of your colors all over the ornament. You'll want the colors to slightly overlap so they can blend together near the edges. Once you've covered the entire surface, go back over the polishes with more layers of polish until they are as opaque as you want.
Let the polish dry for a few hours before continuing.
Step 9: Add Iridescent Glitter
Once the polish is dry, apply a clear nail polish topper with iridescent flakes to your cosmetic sponge. Dab this over some areas on the ornament to give it a more opalescent appearance. You don't want to overdo the glitter - most areas will only have a few single flakes, but you can concentrate more in a couple spots.
Let the whole thing dry, and you'll be ready to seal the design (skip to step 20 if you aren't painting the other two designs). 987