painted ornament

I was wandering around Michaels looking for craft ideas and inspiration when I came across a ceramic ornament. My brain recalled the neat Halloween designs that Mrs. Brooklyn Limestone painted on her dishes, and thought I bet I could do that with this ornament!

In particular, I’ve been liking the graphic designs I’ve been seeing, including a hand-made stripe (meaning, not all neat and straight necessarily). Chevrons are also very popular right now, so I thought I would do one side in each.

I started by taking the ornament, and tracing it onto some paper so that I could sketch out my design idea before painting it on.

Sketched out idea

After seeing it on paper, and deciding I liked it, I got my paint pen juices flowing, and started sketching. For the stripes, I took an index card, and used is as my guideline. And then, I just started filling in.

Paint on ornament

Unfortunately, I could not find the ceramic paint pens specifically, but I did find these craft paint pens that say they’ll work on glass, wood, and all sorts of surfaces. I thought it could work, and it did. It was very easy to use.

Chevron Painted Ornament

I also didn’t realize the pen was orange until I was reading the directions on the package. I went by the tip color when I bought it, oh well. It’s still a nice color of orange, and it looks fine.

After the first side was dry, I turned it over. I started going to town and then oops. I started putting stripes going the wrong way. I tried to wipe it off quickly, but this stuff dries really quickly, and it just smudged and stayed.

Oops

It’s really easy to fix though; just take some nail polish remover (which is mostly acetone) and a q-tip, and carefully “erase” the mistake. Any nail polish remover should do the trick.

All Better

Striped Painted Ornament

Just let it dry, and then you’re ready to hang it on the tree!

Painted Striped Ornament

This was such an easy and cheap project, any one can do it. Also, these paint pens come in different tip widths, so you can go for something really thick, or thin. You could easily personalize an ornament for anyone. I think this would make a great teachers’ gift–just have your student personalize an ornament for their teacher. This ornament is usually $1.49, but with sales and coupons you can get it for much cheaper. And the paint pens were under $5 I think.