• About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Work With Us
    • The Creative Team
    • Disclosures
  • Subscribe
  • Shop Our Products
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • DIY & Decor â–¾
    • Crafts
    • Home Decor
    • Home Improvement
    • Technology
  • Recipes â–¾
    • Breakfast
    • Appetizers
    • Side Dishes
    • Easy Dinner Ideas
    • Slow Cooker
    • Fun Food
    • Desserts
  • Clean/Organize
  • Kid Ideas â–¾
    • Birthdays
    • Castle Playroom
    • Outer Space Bedroom
    • Teacher Appreciation
    • Travel Tips
  • Free Printables
  • Holidays â–¾
    • Cinco de Mayo
    • Mother’s Day
    • Memorial Day
    • Father’s Day
    • Independence Day
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
    • New Year’s
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Gift Ideas

Ideas for the Home

You are here: Home / Craft Ideas / How to Paint Clear Christmas Ornaments

By Pam Baker on December 3, 2019 Leave a Comment

How to Paint Clear Christmas Ornaments

Craft Ideas· Seasonal Ideas

  • Share
  • Tweet

Learn how easy it is to paint clear plastic or glass Christmas ornaments using acrylic paint to create custom colored Christmas ornaments.

Hello, Kenarry readers! I’m Pam from The Birch Cottage, and I’m back again this month sharing with you just how easy it is to paint clear Christmas ornaments.

Learn How to Paint Christmas Ornaments

I love Christmas decorations, don’t you? For some reason, I’ve been really excited about getting all my decorations up this year. My goal, you see, is to have everything decorated before Thanksgiving. Not because I want to skip or dishonor Thanksgiving, but because I want to have a stress-free holiday season. I figure the sooner I get all the decorations up, the sooner I can focus on all my Christmas gift making.

So, today, I’d like to share a really easy DIY Christmas ornament project with you. Although it takes some time because you have to let the paint dry, you can complete this project in a matter of minutes. So, let’s take a look at just how to paint Christmas ornaments. And, by the way, this will work with both clear plastic bulbs and clear glass bulbs.

How to paint clear glass or plastic Christmas ornaments

A collage of step by step pictures showing you how to paint a Christmas ornament

You can use clear glass Christmas ornaments or clear plastic Christmas ornaments for this project. They both work equally well. So, let’s take a look at what you’ll need.

What you need: 

Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links for products or services we think you’ll like. This means if you make a purchase from one of these links, Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® will make a small commission at no additional cost to you so we can keep the great ideas for the home coming your way. All opinions expressed are derived from personal experience.

Supplies needed: 

  • clear glass or plastic ornaments
  • DecoArt Americana Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint (in color of your choice)
  • paper towels
  • plastic cup or water bottle

Video Tutorial

I put together this quick little video to show you just how easy it is to paint Christmas ornaments.

Instructions:

1. Remove the tops from the ornaments.

Before you can add paint to the inside of your clear glass or plastic Christmas ornaments, you will need to remove the caps. You simply grab the band and pull it off and out of the ornament opening.

Clear ornaments with the tops removed

2. add paint to the ornaments.

First, for the best results, you’ll want to be sure you’re using a fresh bottle of paint. If you have acrylic paint that’s been sitting on the shelf for some time, it’s probably best if you just buy a fresh new bottle of paint. Plus, acrylic paints are really inexpensive and come in all sorts of amazing colors.

It’s really easy to customize your Christmas ornaments. I chose white acrylic paint so I could create some Rae Dunn inspired ornaments at a fraction of the cost. (Although the Metallics paint is pictured in the below pictures, it is NOT recommended for this project.)

So, now that you have a fresh bottle of acrylic paint, be sure to shake it up really well.

Use acrylic paint for painting ornaments

Then you will squeeze a little bit of paint into the ornament. I like to add about four squeezes and rotate the ornament each time. Just don’t use too much paint. You can always add more, if needed.

Squeezing paint into clear ornaments
Tilting ornaments to spread out the paint

3. Roll and tilt

Once you have about four squirts of paint in your clear glass or plastic Christmas ornament, you’ll want to kind of tilt it and roll it around so that the paint coats the entire inside of the ornament. It’s also helpful to kind of tap the ornament against the palm of your hand.

Rolling an ornament around to paint the inside

4. Let the Ornaments Dry

Once you have the entire inside of the Christmas ornament coated with acrylic paint, you’ll want to invert it upside down. Excess paint will run out of the opening in the ornament, so be sure to rest the ornament in or on something that you don’t mind getting paint on.

My husband made me these handy paintbrush holders. They are simply pieces of PVC that have been cut to varying heights and glued to a small scrap piece of wood. You can also use a plastic water bottle.

Letting the ornaments dry after painting them

Let the ornaments rest upside down for 10 minutes. That should be enough time for the excess paint to run out. After 10 minutes, turn the ornaments right side up and let rest another 10 minutes. I typically rotate the ornaments back and forth a few times and then leave the ornaments to dry overnight.

Ornaments resting upside down while they dry

5. decorate your ornaments

After your ornaments have dried, put the tops back on and decorate as desired.

Learn how to paint Christmas Ornaments

To finish off my painted ornaments, I simply tied some ribbon on to the top. I also used my Cricut machine to make some Rae Dunn inspired ornaments. I printed out the words “Joy, Noel and Peace” (I used this font) and affixed them to the fronts of the disc shaped clear ornaments that I painted white.

Learn how to paint Christmas Ornaments

Paint Tips

After quite a bit of trial and error on my part, I quickly discovered that not all acrylic paints are created equal. Here are a few of my tips and recommendations:

  • Be sure to use acrylic paint that is formulated for glass or plastic (depending on what ornaments you’re using).
  • Don’t use too much paint. Not only is it wasteful, but it will take a lot longer for your ornaments to dry.
  • Make sure your ornaments are clean and dry.
  • Based on my personal experience, I can recommend the following paints:
    • DecoArt Multisurface Satin Acrylic Paints
    • DecoArt Americana Gloss Enamels

There are probably other brands of acrylic paints that will work well with this project. These are the paints I have actually used and can attest to the results. Again, just be sure to read the manufacturer’s label for best results.

Love the ideas you see here on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry®? Subscribe today to get our weekly Ideas in Your Inbox newsletter plus other exclusive gifts and offers — all for FREE!

What’s Next? 

If you enjoyed this DIY project on how to paint clear glass or plastic Christmas ornaments, you might also like these other ideas by The Birch Cottage:

DIY Drop Cloth Rag Wreath

Homemade Pineapple Jalapeno Jelly with Printable Labels

Plaid and Wood Christmas Gift Tags

You may also enjoy these Christmas ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry®:

  • Easy DIY Christmas Ornament to Make in Minutes
  • Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Cinnamon Cross and Star
  • DIY Hanging Christmas Tree Decoration
  • How to Make Cinnamon Ornaments

The painted Christmas ornaments really are an easy way to to add some inexpensive and custom colored Christmas ornaments to your home. Plus, there are all kinds of ways to get creative with the paint.

  • Share
  • Tweet

Craft Ideas· Seasonal Ideas

About Pam Baker

Pam is the creative behind The Birch Cottage, a lifestyle blog with an emphasis on family-friendly DIY projects, recipes and tutorials. An accounting clerk by day and a self-proclaimed Pinterest addict by night, you are sure to find creative ideas and meal inspirations at The Birch Cottage.

Pam has been sharing her great ideas on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® since June 2015. Follow Pam on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

In this ultimate guide, you'll learn how to make a burlap wreath with ribbon for your home. The FREE eBook includes easy step-by-step instructions plus inspiring craft and decor ideas to make wreaths for fall, Christmas, Easter and other holidays.

Subscribe today to get ideas in your inbox plus FREE exclusives only for Idea Insiders!

Almost there! Now just check your email to confirm your e-mail address and get your free eBook.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

You're already signed up! YAY! As an Idea Insider you have instant access to our Kenarry Idea Insider Resource Library with exclusive printables, offers and other freebies as soon as you confirm your subscription.
Previous Post: « How to Make a Christmas Garland with Felt
Next Post: How to Make Paper Ornaments for Christmas »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Carrie Ypma from Ideas for the Home by Kenarry®Hello, I'm Carrie! Welcome to Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® where we want to help you create a home you love. We're glad you're here! Read more...

Sign Up and Get a Free Gift

Subscribe to become an Idea Insider. You'll get our weekly newsletter plus special deals and other resources that are only for subscribers -- all for FREE!

Almost there! Now just check your email to confirm your e-mail address and get your free eBook.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

You're already signed up! YAY! As an Idea Insider you have instant access to our Kenarry Idea Insider Resource Library with exclusive printables, offers and other freebies as soon as you confirm your subscription.
In this ultimate guide, you'll learn how to make a burlap wreath with ribbon for your home. The FREE eBook includes easy step-by-step instructions plus inspiring craft and decor ideas to make wreaths for fall, Christmas, Easter and other holidays.
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Shop Our Products
  • My Account
  • Cart

Footer

Disclosure: Posts may include affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions are our own. You are reading and following advice from Kenarry, LLC at your own risk. Always use safety precautions. You should read and follow manufacturer’s directions for the products and tools you use. Read more.

 

Privacy Policy: The privacy of your personal information is important. We make every effort to safeguard your information and will never sell it to third parties. Read our privacy policy.

Terms of Use: You are welcome to link to this site or use a single image and brief description to link back to any post. Republishing posts in their entirety is prohibited without permission. All images are property of Kenarry, LLC. Do not crop or remove watermark. Do not reproduce without link back or permission. If you do link to this site, please contact us to let us know. All free printables offered are for personal use only. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated. Thank you!

As it relates to comments and content posted on this blog by those other than the owners, any such content that contains the copyrighted and/or proprietary work of others is expressly prohibited and will be removed. Repeated posting of such content by the same user may result in that user being banned from this site.

Copyright © 2021 Kenarry LLC · Powered by Captivating Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in