the making of Easy Peasy Christmas decorations

Here’s an easy craft for those who like to make Christmas decorations, either for themselves or as gifts. Here’s what I did…..

Supplies:

• Ready to Pour Paints https://www.michaels.com/acrylic-ready-mixed-pouring-paint-by-artists-loft/M20000898.html

• Clear plastic decorations https://www.michaels.com/4ct-100mm-clear-plastic-disc-ornaments/10675245.html

• Varnish https://www.michaels.com/liquitex-gloss-varnish/MD002517S.html

• Gesso https://www.michaels.com/white-gesso-artists-loft/M10999016.html or White Acrylic Paint https://www.michaels.com/soft-body-acrylic-paint-by-artists-loft-32oz/10183996.html

• Some way of suspending the ornaments so they can dry. (I used floral foam wrapped in parchment paper to keep in from getting totally covered with paint. Suspended the decorations on popsicle sticks.)

Steps:

• Coat the decorations with a base coat of gesso or white acrylic paint. Let them set up for at least a few minutes, though it’s not necessary to let them dry fully or overnight.

• While the decorations are suspended, begin to pour the coloured paints back and forth over the decorations, making sure to get the sides covered as well as the back and front. With the Artist Loft Ready to Pour paints it’s easy to pour directly from the bottle and have pretty good control of how much is pouring onto the decoration…less waste. If you are using some other type of paint (perhaps what you’ve mixed yourself from paints on hand), try to pour it into something like a paper cup that you can form a bit of a spout to make pouring more controlled.

• Let dry overnight.

• Pour some gloss varnish into a container big enough to dip the dried ornaments in, one at a time. Again, it’s easier to dip them or hold them over a cup of varnish and spoon it over them than to pour it so there is less waste.

• Suspend the ornaments until dry.

• Put the ornament hooks back into place and you are ready to hang them on the tree. I attached mine to a gold elastic string for a garland. Lots of creative ways to display these.

For an excellent, detailed video showing all the steps, check out Chris Jeszeck’s video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bctYIV593Vo&t=499s

Green, Gold, Metallic White

Mixed green and white to get a second green shade.

Red, Gold, Metallic White

Had two shades of red paint so didn’t have to mix, but that can easily be done if you only have one colour of each paint.