Altered Dollar Store Christmas Pendants

Servus and welcome to my first Christmas post for this season!

It's a bit hard to imagine a Christmas tree standing in our flat soon as outside it has spring-like temperatures (which is way too warm for this time of year and mainly causes a lot of people naughty headaches)...but here I am: unusually early with sharing some Christmas crafting on my blog.

I had bought some simple Christmas tree ornaments at a Dollar store ages ago and when tidying up my studio lately (being on the search for something completely different of course) I stumbled upon them. (I love those happy re-finds...that is almost as if you have just been shopping crafts stuff without having paid any money...lol).

As you can see the ornaments were plain white and really begged for a make-over.  They had a thin coat of varnish on them already so I didn't have to seal them before I used the crackle paint on them.

I used DecoArt media white Crackle Paint and tinted it with a bit of Phtalo Green-Yellow media fluid acrylic. Then I applied the mix to the tree using a palette knife.

I made sure I made some dapping motions as well with the palette knife to create a lot of texture as shown with the image above.

Once the crackling process was finished and all had dried, I created my own spray paint from some drops of Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic and water. I sprayed it on quite generously so it would pool and seep into the cracks and crevices.


While the paint was still (very) wet I went in with some squirts from the White media Shimmer Mister bottle so the colours would mix and create random marbling patterns.  Where I found I had added too much of the white paint I just went in with the brown spray paint again...

Now my trees looked wonderfully grungy and worn!

The ornaments also took the speeding up the drying time with the heat tool pretty well (lucky me! - being a very impatient crafter when it comes to drying times).

For a finish I painted the edges with Quinacridone Burnt Orange and then sprinkled on some Metallic Gold media fluid acrylic and a bit of the Quinacridone Burnt Orange as well for a more festive look. 

After my ornaments had dried I inserted some rough thread for hanging them on the tree...but I can also imagine using one of them on a Christmas card or canvas....

I also left the other ornament's edges white for a more delicate look. You could also use the Metallic Gold for painting the edges...aaaah, the possibilities! ;)

I hope you like them and are inspired to go search your stash for some ornaments to alter... ;)

Hugs and happy crafting, 

Claudia 

xxx