It’s been several years since I’ve done any decorating for Christmas. Travelling between families in California and West Virginia meant we haven’t spent a single Christmas at home since my husband and I got married, but this year it’s looking like we’ll have some family coming to us! I’ve been going crazy with the decorations and let me tell you, it feels great to be decorating my own home. And, I think it looks awesome, too. :)
I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a few of my own decorations amidst all the bin opening and ornament hanging. I knew these Styrofoam balls would be perfect for some DIY Christmas orbs, so I got to work.
- The Styrofoam is very porous, so I began by coating each one with a generous layer of modge podge.
- For two of them, I used liquitex modeling paste to coat the surface. This gave them such a wonderful textured look. While the paste was still dry, I added drops of india ink in red and green, then spritzed them with water.
- Once the paste was dry, I rolled each one over the surface of an inked stamp.
- For the two other orbs, I used torn chunks of tissue tape to cover the surface. Then I sealed them with a coat of liquitex varnish.
- Over the varnish I addedmore india ink in red and green. It was cool to see the effect of the ink running in the wet varnish.
- These orbs still needed something, so I wrapped them in twine, then added modeling paste over the twine to give it a awesome messy look.
- I coated the paste in gold paint.
And that’s it! I was hoping to make some more, but using so many wet ingredients does make the drying time for these little guys quite long. I have some commissions and Christmas gifts I still need to finish, so that will have to be it for now.
I hope you enjoy them and are inspired to create some of your own Christmas Decor!
