DIY Painted Trees and Holly Christmas Ornament

Hi all! My sister Johanna, has been churning out homemade Christmas decorations like crazy, and I asked her to share a few with us here on the blog. She is such a creative! After you’ve read this tutorial, be sure to stop by her Etsy shop and look at all of her beautiful handmade creations!

I’ve loved painting my own ornaments this Christmas season. I love how creative you can get with just a couple of paint colors, a paintbrush, a little twine, and some plastic balls. I love how unique my Christmas tree is going to look, and I can’t wait to see the handmade ornaments glowing in the soft, warm Christmas lights. I love knowing that I was able to decorate my tree frugally without looking cheap because, really, handmade is so classy and fun!

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how I made little evergreen trees with little red berries on them using the supplies I mentioned above.

DIY Painted Trees and Holly Christmas Ornament

You will need:

• Clear plastic ornament ball (can be purchased at Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, etc.)
• Acrylic paint in red, green, and white
• Stiff bristled paintbrush
• Small (itty bitty bristles) paintbrush
• Twine
• Scissors

Cover your surface with plastic or paper. Cut several very small pieces of twine in various lengths for the tree trunk and branches. Most will need to be less than half an inch long. Cut enough for about 5 trees.

Remove the top of the ornament, so you can stick your finger into the top to hold onto it while painting.

Pour some white paint onto your surface, using your stiff-bristled paintbrush, begin painting the whole plastic ball by dipping the brush in the paint and using rapid up and down motions while painting so that only the tips of the bristles are coming into contact with the ball. This will give it a roughed-up look. Do not use strokes with the sides of the bristles

Before your paint dries, begin sticking the little pieces of twine onto the ball, arranging them to look like tree trunks and branches. You should be able to do about 4 or 5 trees, depending on the size of the ornaments you chose. If the paint starts to get too dry before you finish, just apply a little more paint to the area you are working on.

Allow the ornament to dry completely before continuing, for about an hour.

Once dry, you are ready to finish the trees. Pour a little green paint onto your surface. Using your smaller paintbrush, dip it in the green paint, and begin painting the leaves using quick short strokes, starting at the top and stroking downwards. If you get some on the twine, that’s fine.

If you want your trees to look like they have a little snow on them, take your stiff, bristled paintbrush again and tap some white paint on the trees.

For your berries, clean off your small paintbrush, pour a little red paint on your surface, and dip the tip of the brush in it. Use tapping motions to paint little red berries on your tree.

If necessary, touch up the whole ornament with white again to cover any fingerprints or mess-ups. Allow to dry for an hour or two.

Your finished result? A tree-covered ornament!

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