Use Gold Leaf Sheets to Make Monogram Ornaments

The thing I love most about glass Christmas ornaments, is that you can do some many things with them to customize them and they are an easy thing to DIY and fill your Christmas tree. The gold leaf also brings a bit of glam. You can fill them full of glitter,photos,sheet music shreds, fake snow,lunch meat etc. Pretty much anything you can shove in through the top opening can make it a pretty cool ornament. This time I decided to play with metallic paint,stickers and use gold leaf sheets to create monogram ornaments. There are 3 ornaments to try making , but you can skip to the bottom for the gold leaf version.

It was really fun and very easy.I just love how gold leafing looks. And the best part of this project is you can pretty much stop  at any step and you have 3 fab different custom ornaments!

Supplies to make gorgeous DIY gold leaf ornaments:

Start with inexpensive clear glass ornaments from the craft store (or plastic), acrylic craft paint, gold leaf adhesive,a paint brush or foam brush, stickers, real or imitation gold leaf.

Carefully remove the silver tops. I cut myself on one, the inside lip isn’t very smooth, so this is a good grown-up task to do with gloves.

I set mine back in the container and poured in metallic craft paint,Once I had poured in about 1/3 of the bottle.

Carefully pick it up and swirl the paint around inside. It slooooooowly moves around the inside and covers as you turn it.

It’s kind of like watching an el-cheapo lava lamp. Pour the excess paint out of the top of the ornament.

After the entire inside is covered,I leave mine upside down for a few hours to let the excess drip out. By doing it in a disposable cup, I can save the paint by poking a hole in the bottom of the cup later and let it drip back into the bottle. Let it dry 24-48 hours upright. You can stop here for ornament number 1 and just have a pretty colored metallic ornament!

Next add a letter sticker as a monogram letter stencil. The sticker aisle has a ton in great fonts.

If you want to make custom decor for your tree, try using Run ‘n Buff to update old ornaments

And I found these. Not super holiday-ish in themselves, but they would work to create a silhouette.

I also thought I would try this deer head sticker and I tried some trees too. You can stop here for ornament number 2!

To make an easy gold ornament with gold leafing see below:

To begin the actual gold leafing, paint the metal leaf adhesive glue, sometimes called sizing ,all over the surface. The while the adhesive is still wet, remove your monogram sticker. Gold leaf adhesive is crazy sticky when it dries. If you wait to pull the sticker off once it’s dry, it might stick together and pull  off of the ornament.

Your adhesive  needs to dry on some aluminum foil about 30 minutes.Once it’s dry and really sticky, press your sheet of gold , silver  or copper leaf to the ornament surface. It’s very delicate and might tear a bit. That’s o.k., You can pick up the pieces and stick them back on. Try not to get your fingers on the parts with the adhesive, Your finger oils can make it less sticky.

Just keep adding the leaf to any gaps. It’s very light and feathery, so be gentle with it.

Once it’s full of gold foil,use a soft brush to burnish the surface and remove the excess gold leaf. The leafing won’t stick to the places without  adhesive. So you’ll see if you missed any spots.  I like the bit of color bleeding  through the cracks.

Once your gold ornament is completely done, it’s ready to hang for the holiday season!

Ornament number 3!

I also tried adding some silver and gold together, it turned out pretty with a metallic marble finish.

It ended up really pretty!Except my stag head ornament did not turn out like I thought. Ornament fail. I did not take into account the clear edges around the sticker. I should have trimmed around the antlers.

I made Mr.Krabs from Spongebob. lol . I have Krab’s on my tree…..I know…..riiiight? They can’t all be winners people. I also tried some trees and a metallic paint pen. And I colored the cap with the paint pen as well.

It was a fun project and they are so pretty, it was fun to use gold leaf sheets to create monogram ornaments. I think I am going to buy a bunch on clearance in a few weeks and have them ready to do for next year. It would be a great way to do an entire tree of custom ornaments or do gift ornaments for about a dollar a piece!

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