How to Make Red and Silver Marbled Ornaments

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I have DIY’d a bunch of ornaments throughout the years but my kids are quite older now and we haven’t done it in a while.  Today I gathered my youngest to help me make Red and Silver Marbled Ornaments.

Let me start with a story.  I have a nice big entryway and thought a tall skinny tree would look great from both the inside and through the big picture window.

Every time I come up with the idea of a product that would look great in my house (or a cute shirt even) I can never find it.  Because the only place it exists is in my mind.

So I drug the hubby to Michaels before Thanksgiving when they advertised 50% off Christmas trees.  As we walked up to the store the skies parted, the sun beamed down and the angels sang!  Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic but there they were!  Flanking the entry doors were two “pencil trees” 7 foot tall!  It was EXACTLY what I had in my head!

That never happens to me!  So needless to say, that tree came home and now sits in my entryway.  I decided to do a red and white and silver theme this year and wanted to DIY some ornaments for this cutie.

I scrolled through Pinterest for ideas and these marbled ornaments were so cute, classy but at the same time not over the top.

There were many ways to achieve this look, do the paint on the inside of the glass ball or the outside.  Also, there were differences in the type of paint used.  You can use nail polish or acrylic paint.

I decided to go with both methods and both paint mediums.   Stick around to find out which I liked best!

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Red and White Marbled Ornaments:  Paint on the inside

Starting with the nail polish you actually need to pour it into the ball.  We tried dripping it inside but you actually need to use a lot of nail polish, a lot!  Once you pour it in the ball move it around and cover the ball with the color.

Using the acrylic paint make sure it is kind of runny, I made the mistake of picking up a different one that was too thick and I had to add water.

In the end, both methods were amazing and produced great results.  I think I preferred the acrylic paint only because of the cost compared to nail polish.

PS…when you are done swirling the paint/polish around turn upside down in the original container and let the excess paint run out.

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Red and White marbled Ornaments:  Paint on the outside

I struggled here.  So what you do is fill a plastic cup halfway with water and add the nail polish to the water.  Take a skewer and move it through the nail polish.  It creates a beautiful marbled look in the water.  Take the ball and dip it into the water, just straight in then out.

I hung on a really long skewer over the floor of my bathroom, the kind of skewer used to toast marshmallows in a fire. Then I attached the ornaments with a twist tie and hung to dry.

Here is where I struggled.  It only created color on the bottom half of the ornament.  No matter how much polish I put in I couldn’t get it over the halfway point.  I wonder if I had a wider vessel I might be able to have gotten it higher than the halfway point.  I didn’t want to use any of my kitchen dishes because I figured they wouldn’t be safe to use with food after.  If anyone has any ideas on what to do I would appreciate letting me know.

BTW….this method doesn’t work at all with acrylic paint.  It just disolves in the water.  😂

This method produced the most marbled looking ornament.  I loved the look but it really needs to be all over to look right.

And the winner is……

Since my method to marble on the outside didn’t produce the results I wanted I am going to have to choose the inside method.

As far as nail polish or acrylic paint my vote was for acrylic paint, purely for the cost.  But they both turned out really pretty!

I might give some of the other paint colors a try sometime.  (Maybe next year😂)  Until then have a wonderful Holiday Season!

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