How to Make Simple Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments that Look Expensive

Learn how to DIY easy handpainted Christmas ornaments using a marker to draw simple shapes, that anyone can make, and look like you bought them at a fancy store.

I love Christmas decorations.

But I don’t always want to use the same one’s year after year.

I also don’t want to spend a fortune on more stuff that I only use for a month at Christmas.

So this year I took out a permanent marker, glue, and glitter, and gave some of my ornaments a makeover.

And I was surprised at how well they turned out!

When I hear handpainted Christmas ornament it sounds difficult.

But I promise you it isn’t. If you can draw a straight-ish line and something that looks like a circle, you’ve got this!

I couldn’t believe it myself!

This is easy, fun, inexpensive, and relaxing!

Let me show you what I did and you tell me if I am completely wrong.

Christmas tree decorated with hand painted ball ornaments, white faux fur garland, wood bead garland and rose pink, blue, white and gold tree ornaments

How to Make Simple Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments
DIY Easy Hand Painted Christmas Ornament with Glitter

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How to Make Simple Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments

This is my favorite way to makeover an ornament because it is easy, anyone can do it, and it ends up looking like an expensive handcrafted ornament!

And this is coming from a shaky handed, person with no drawing experience or skill.

Supplies

Christmas tree ornaments, Matte white glass ball Christmas ornaments (these are similar to the ones I used)
Pencil
Gold metallic Sharpie marker

I started out with a plain white ornament that I had bought a few years ago and needed a little sprucing up.

1. Use a pencil to draw the pattern you want to create on the ornament.

I drew four lines separating the ornament into quarters and then added ovals down the sides of the lines for a simple Nordic inspired leaf/branch look.

If you’re a confident drawer you may not even need the pencil. You may just be able to get to town with a marker.

make over Christmas ornament with permanent marker

2. Trace over your pencil lines with the permanent marker.

Then I just traced over the pencil lines with a fine tip metallic gold Sharpie permanent marker.

how to make a hand painted Christmas ornament using markers

And I ended up with a beautiful, modern, hand painted look Christmas ornament!

That’s it!

Tip: Try not to get your fingers in the pencil marks or the marker markings before they dry because it can leave fingerprints on the ornament. It only takes a minute for the marker to dry.

DIY Easy Hand Painted Christmas Ornament with Glitter

After completing the ornaments above I was feeling pretty confident, so I decided to take it a step further and draw freehand lines and add glitter to look like a pine tree boughs.

Supplies

For my second hand painted ornament I used large clear plastic ornaments that I bought at a craft store, and I spray painted them rose pink.

I know pink isn’t for everyone, especially for Christmas, you could really use any color ornament for this craft.

using a white paint marker on a pink ornament for DIY painted ornament

The next day when the spray paint was dry, it was safe to proceed with the rest of the decorating.

1. Draw on the colored ornament with a paint marker.

I drew lines on the ornament to look like branches from a tree with a white paint Sharpie marker.

writing with glue on a Christmas ornament

2. Draw glue lines on ornament.

Next, I applied glue in lines directly next to the white marker lines I had drawn in the previous step.

adding glue to hand-painted Christmas tree ornament

3. Sprinkle glitter onto glue on ornament.

Then I dusted the ornament with glitter.

After that I decided that I wanted to add some “berries” to my ornament. So I followed the same steps above to add marker, glue, and glitter to look like berries next to my branch.