DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Painted Ornaments
Most crafts on the site don't really require you purchase any
supplies to make them. But at Christmas, I usually do one or two
crafts with the girls that require some supplies. These painted
ornaments make wonderful gifts, were simple enough for my 3 year old but
had a nice enough end result that my 7 year old loved them too.
Total cost of each ball was $1 Canadian (which works out to be about
65 cents US) |
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Before I start the instructions, I'll give you a bit of background. We
are going to paint the INSIDE of the ornaments... you won't need paintbrushes or
anything. This gives an intriguing result (grandma will wonder how it was
done! and the kids will enjoy explaining the process). It also prevents
any scratching of the paint -- these ornaments should last forever!
I would have preferred silver, gold, red and green ornaments (Christmas
colors) *grin*, but the girls wanted pink and blue...
Materials:
 | acrylic paint does not wash out of clothes, so cover up or wear old
clothes. If you do get some in the clothes, work on getting it out
before it dries (acrylic paint dries in less than an hour so be quick)
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| ADULT: take the top off the ornament. Just tug a bit until
it's out about 1/4 way. There should be two extended wires that are
holding the top on. Pinch those together and the top will come out the
rest of the way very easily. Set it aside (don't lose it!). The
kids can do everything else
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| Squeeze 2 to 4 different colors of acrylic paint into the ornament.
Just squirt them all in there on top of each other -- they won't mix.
Start with a single squirt of each -- you can add more if you need to.
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| Turn the ornament this way and that -- the paint will ooze around the
ornament, coating it with a nice marbled effect. My girls had fun
watching the patterns come out -- sort of like watching a lava lamp *grin*
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| My girls liked doing the ornaments one at a time and watching what
happened. BUT, you can squirt paint into 4 or 5 ornaments and lie them
on their side. Just rotate them ever minute or so and they'll do the
rest.
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| If the paint stops oozing, squirt a bit more paint in.
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| Sometimes there'll be a stubborn spot that won't cover. Use paper
towel or books to prop the ornament and lie it down so the spot is on the
bottom. In about 5 minutes take a peek and you should see that it's
covered up.
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| Let the paint dry 24 hours before putting the top on (it takes awhile to
dry because it isn't very exposed to the air). I just covered a cookie
sheet with paper towel, put all the ornaments on it and stuck it on top of
the fridge for a day.
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| ADULT: put the top back on.
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| OPTIONAL: string a ribbon through the top and tie it to decorate
further. |
