Hi friends! Today I have another DIY Christmas Ornament project to share with you. I recently saw a picture on Etsy of decoupage ornaments. They were pretty, and I was inspired to make today’s ornaments from that photo. The one thing I did not care for about the Etsy ornaments was that I could see the white core of the paper they used. I thought that was unfortunate, since I could tell a lot of time was put into the set… so I thought I would try out making my own set. I am going to walk you through my supply list, where I bought everything (mostly at Hobby Lobby), and total cost for these ornaments. There’s also a tutorial video on how I made the videos down below.

Most of the products I used today I bought at Hobby Lobby last year, but I did go to Hobby Lobby last week to pick out a few Christmas papers from the open stock paper in the scrapbook section of the store. The papers were 40% off, making them $0.41 each. I also looked at how much DIY ornaments cost right now at the store. A box of 4 large ornaments is priced at $6.99, and are 50% off right now. I bought my ornaments last year after Christmas. The whole Christmas decor and craft section was 90% off!! I loaded my cart up with so much Christmas! lol… So technically I bought my pack of 4 ornaments for $0.80, but for this blog and video, I will be using prices I would pay today.

I used Liquitex Matte Medium as my adhesive to add the paper to the plastic ornaments. I applied the matte medium with an inexpensive paint brush, and with my finger. It took about 30 minutes to cover an ornament with the ripped scrapbook paper. Once I finished, I set the ornament aside to dry.

Once the matte medium was dry, I brushed on a thin coat of Liquitex High Gloss Varnish. I’m not sure if this was a needed step, since I ended up also using Deco Art Triple Thick Gloss Glaze. This glaze is amazing. I am on my second bottle of this stuff, and will be buying a third when the time comes. It dries to a hard glass-like finish, and looks stunning in person.

I did use my blow dryer to dry the Triple Thick on two ornaments. To my surprise, the glaze on those ornaments cracked! I started seeing small crackle lines forming, and I got excited! I have spent a lot of money these past couple of years, trying to find a good crackle, and just by chance I made a crackle on my own. I’m not sure if was because of the varnish under the glaze, the dryer, or both, but I will be trying this out on different surfaces in the near future. To emphasize the cracks, I brushed brown pigment powder over the cracks, then sealed the 2 ornaments with one last layer of High Gloss Varnish.

Now let’s talk about money… how much would this project cost you if you wanted to go buy the products tomorrow? Well, I already mentioned the paper and ornaments. $3.49 for a pack of 4 ornaments, and 5 pieces of paper, at $0.41 a sheet. That equals $5.54. Divide that by 4, and that amounts to $1.39 per ornament, IF you already have the Liquitex and Triple Thick Glaze in your stash. If you don’t, then we need to add those into the overall cost. Liquitex is pretty expensive in craft stores. between $20-30, depending on the size bottle you pick. I did find an 8 oz bottle on Amazon for $6.94, so I’m going to use that price. Triple Thick is $5.69, and varnish is $14.99. I am going to leave the varnish out for this first addition of prices. The matte medium and Triple Thick adds up to $12.63. Add the paper and ornaments, the price total is now $18.17. Divide that by 4, and that amounts to $4.54 per ornament. If you want to add in the $14.99 varnish, that brings your grand total to $33.16. Divide that by 4, and that amounts to $8.29 an ornament.

That’s a lot of math, I know. But my point is budget-friendly Christmas DIY projects are so easy to do. All of my Christmas gifts I give to family and friends are handmade. And they are truly appreciated. And what’s great about this math is your BIG investment has been added in. The most expensive items on this supply list are the Liquitex bottles and Triple Thick, and once those are bought, you will be able to use them on SO MANY projects.

SUPPLY LIST:

• 4 Plastic Christmas ornaments
• 5 sheets THIN 12×12 scrapbook paper
• Inexpensive Paint brush
• Liquitex Matte Medium
• Deco Art Triple Thick Glaze
• Liquitex High Gloss Varnish (optional)
• Red Velvet ribbon (optional)

If you would like to see how I put these ornaments together, you can watch the video HERE:

I hope I was able to pass on some ideas and inspiration your way. That’s all that I have for today… Thanks so much for stopping by!