Christmas Crafts – Painted Ornaments & Nutcrackers

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Last year I was on the hunt for ornaments that were more cottagey with pretty dainty patterns and florals. I couldn’t really find what I was looking for, so I decided to try and make them myself. I found plain ceramic and wooden ornaments from Hobby Lobby and Michaels and had some craft paint on hand. I wanted the patterns to resemble pretty wallpapers and wrapping paper I’ve seen, so I looked to those for inspiration.

Using a tiny brush, I first tried playing around with some designs on a paper plate.

I painted the ornaments a solid color and then hung them on a wooden dowel and placed that across my laundry hamper to dry. The tedious part is having to paint in layers and waiting for each layer to dry before you start the next layer of design.

I did about 2-3 coats of the base color and then started layering on the design.

When everything was dry I cut off the ribbon they came with and thread a new ribbon on.

I painted a few of the knobs gold before threading in the new ribbon. It was nice to be able to be able to paint the ornaments the colors of my choice so that they could coordinate with the color palette I used for my tree decorating.

I also picked up a few small nutcrackers from Michaels and painted them as well. I forgot to take a step by step picture of this but I basically did the same as far as painting in layers and letting each layer dry.

I ended up finding giant inflatable ornaments at Hobby Lobby on sale and thought I could use outdoor craft paint to paint the same type of designs and use them for outdoor decorations.