If you have dreamed of creating your own hand-painted floral tree ornaments, today is all about my simple step-by-step process. We are going to get a little crafty and lend our painting skills to this project. Even with florals, these are perfect for gifting or decorating at the holidays.
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I have a few different types of ornaments to use, clear baubles in spheres and discs, and papier-mâché ornaments in some different shapes. Before we get started I also have the rest of my supplies ready: acrylic paint, a palette, large brushes, and small brushes.
The first step is adding color to the ornaments. For the clear ornaments it is just a matter of pouring some paint inside and rolling it around until coated. I found that cheaper dollar store acrylics worked great for this because they are naturally thinner. Set it upside down after to let the excess paint drain out and you have a nicely colored glossy ornament. With the paper ornaments I mixed up my paint and used a large brush to cover the ornament. The paper takes the paint really nicely and for the light colors I only needed one coat.
With the baubles colored and ready to go, I have mixed up some more acrylics to start our floral designs.
For the first one you are getting used to the rounded surface and the acrylics so it is nice to stick to one color. My first floral is all blue and I am using a tiny brush for the delicate leaves. The whole is nicer than the sum of its parts - so remember if you mess up one little leaf it isn't the biggest deal. Try to focus on your brushstrokes, have fun with it, and the end result will still be great!
Next up I tried out white flowers with green leaves and a brown stamen on the beige paper bauble. I started with the white doing a single color at a time, keeping everything simple and natural looking. Be very loose with your shapes, don't worry about matching or being exact and the result is a perfectly imperfect floral design.
I only painted about two thirds of the ornaments at a time so you can hold on to it and rotate as you paint. It's simple to wait until after they are dry to finish up. I did white florals again on a dark green and a light blue ornament while the first two dried. I kept my color palette very muted and neutral but you can see how easy these are to create and they could be done in any palette.
For the roses I started with a paler pink, slowly mixing more magenta in as I went. The petals are very loosely shaped and really only hint at the idea of a rose. As the ornaments dry I added more color on top of several of them to build some shading. There are endless options for florals, just leaves, or Christmas plants like holly and cedar.
Part of the fun of these ornaments is coming up with your own designs and color combinations. Hopefully this will give you some inspiration for color palettes and florals and you'll be able to run with it from there.
