DIY Christmas ornaments, simple Kids Crafts, great gifts for Grandparents.

We have a Christmas Tradition of getting a new Christmas ornaments each year. When we lived in Germany they had the most amazing Christmas stores full of inexpensive ornaments that we could get for 1 or 2 Euros each. And these were amazing ornaments. Now in the USA; when we finally find an ornament we like is costs more about $12-25. Not cool. So this year we decided to do something different. This we we did DIY Christmas Ornaments! It was such a success with the kids that we wanted to share our fun kids craft! We’ll show you how to make your own DIY Christmas Ornaments.

DIY Christmas Ornament Kids Crafts Tutorial

As with all kids crafts, we need to gather our supplies. The thing I love about DIY Christmas ornaments are that they don’t cost a lot of money if you shop at the right time of the year. You will need:

• Clear Glass or Plastic ball Ornaments. I found glass ornaments at Michael’s Craft store, and plastic ornaments at Michael’s and Walmart. They were between $0.50-$1.00 each. You can also find them at Joann’s or Hobby Lobby. If those fail, you can always try Amazon for Clear ball ornament.
• Newspaper. This isn’t necessary but we found it definitely helps keep the mess contained, especially if you are letting your kids help create.
• Paper Cups (not pictured. But great for letting the ornament drip into as they dry.)
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Acrylic paint. We used a few different brands. Mostly I was shopping for the colors I wanted. But all of our paint came from Walmart and were between $1-2 a bottle.
• Glitter (optional)
• Painters markers. These are for decorating afterwards or for writing special “Merry Christmas” Messages on the ornament when given as a Gift.

The first thing you need to do if clean the ornaments. I thought, “oh this step isn’t important”. And actually skipped doing it with our first batch. Not so good. The paint only worked on about half of the ornaments. When you clean the ornaments with rubbing alcohol; it lets the paint stick better on the inside. To clean simply pour a little rubbing alcohol into the ornament. Swish around. Then drain and let the ornament dry.

To decorate the ornament, select the colors you want to use. Drizzle into the ornament. I like to drizzle different colors into the ornament. When I do this, I pour in a pattern of intermixing the colors. Then if you want glitter, add that as well. Then place a folded paper towel over the opening and shake vigorously. Or you can rotate slowly allowing the paints to mix and swirl slowly. The different methods of mixing will give you different patterns on the ornaments.

You can also lay the ornaments on their side and allow gravity to spread the paint around. Then return in a few minutes and slowly rotate the ornament. You continue doing this method until the entire inside is covered with paint. This leaves the colors stronger in their original positions and colors. When you shake vigorously, it mixes the colors more and offers a stronger swirl pattern.

Once the inside of the ornament is covered, place upside down on a paper cup. This allows the extra paint to drip out allowing it to fully dry. Once dry simply replace the hook and hang! See I told you it was simple!

DIY Christmas Ornaments make great Kids Crafts and Christmas Gifts

The great thing about the DIY Christmas ornaments is they are inexpensive, fun, simple and kids love helping! Although Jade is a little young to make the ornaments on her own, my two boys had a blast! They picked their own colors, swirled them and they loved seeing what they could create!

Not only did we make enough ornaments that we can decorate our own Christmas Tree, but we made extras so we can give them as gifts for the grandparents. It makes a very special gift for the grandparents, as it is made by the grandchild. It is personalized and shows their personality. Like J’s ornaments. He really loves Iron Man, and the colors red and silver. Think you could tell?

The part that takes the longest is simply waiting for the ornament to dry. Usually if you are allowing it to drain out the excess paint, it can dry overnight or up to 24 hours.

The final touch is if you want to decorate the outside. This is where the painters come into play. I really like the Elmer’s brand or Sharpie brand. For the ornaments though you will want a fine point tip. If you have access to small stencils, you can use the stencil and paint the different holiday designs on the outside. We looked and looked and just couldn’t find small enough stencils for the ornaments. I was really sad. I miss not having a Hobby Lobby close by.

For  us, we used the painters to write the special “To Grandma and Grandpa Love (Child’s name) 2012” The Silver and Gold colors look great on these as it is rather festive for the holiday. You can also use them to label who’s ornament belongs to whom. It didn’t take long for the kids to forget which ornament was their own. So we can label them before we put them onto the tree.

The DIY Christmas Ornaments can be displayed inside or outside on the trees. They look great in both locations. Although for us; outside isn’t much of an option. The wind blows far too hard to keep them on the tree.

That is basically all it takes to create your own DIY Christmas ornaments. Pretty Straight forward and simple. It is fun for the entire family to get involved, makes great Christmas presents and is a fun kids craft! My kids already want to do it again. We may make this become a new Christmas tradition each year.

Have you ever made DIY Christmas Ornaments?

What colors would you mix for your DIY Christmas Ornaments?