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How To Make Marbled Paint Christmas Ornaments

ByJennifer

DIY marbled Paint ornaments are beautiful and unique with their distinctive, colorful swirl pattern. Water marbling can be adapted to all kinds of surfaces to create a beautiful pattern to create an effect almost like hydro-dipping. While there are techniques for marbleized ornaments that use nail polish, oil based paint, craft paint and alcohol inks to make DIY marbled Christmas ornaments, this technique uses a much less toxic craft marbling paint, ball ornaments and a special medium to make the marble effect on the ornaments. Using this easy DIY technique you can make beautiful water marbled ornaments  that have a watercolor look to make December Christmas decor, deck your Christmas tree or give as a gift.

Two marble-patterned Christmas ornaments rest on pine branches in a woven basket, one with a red ribbon attached—an inspiring example of how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint and pastel swirls.This post contains affiliate links including Amazon Associate links. See our sponsor and affiliate disclosure here.

Make DIY Marbled Ornaments With These Supplies:

 

supplies for water marbling

Water Marbling paint and Water Marbling Magic Medium

Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground

White or Clear plastic globe ornaments

Ribbon or twine

Metal Hook for hanging

Deep disposable plastic container with warm water

Clear sealer

Gloves

Paper towels

Swirl stick or tooth pick

Plain paper

A paper towel for the inside bottom of the container

A jar of Daniel Smith Transparent Watercolor Ground sits on a wooden surface, perfect for learning how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint. Greenery and a basket are blurred in the background, creating a festive atmosphere.

Prep The Clear Plastic Ornaments

Round plain ornaments are too slippery for regular acrylic paint to adhere to so there needs to be just a little prep of the ornament.  24 hours before you marble your ornaments, paint your ornaments with Daniel Smith watercolor ground and let dry. This is a medium that turns other surfaces into a watercolor paint-ready surface. This also allows the marbling paint to stick to the shiny surface of the glass ornament.  We are using clear glass ornaments from the local craft store, but you can also use dollar store ornaments or white ceramic ornaments.

A hand squeezes blue liquid dye from a bottle into a clear plastic container filled with water, demonstrating how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint.

Mix Your Water Marbling Medium In Water

When you are ready to marble your ornaments, prep your warm to room temperature water according to the instructions for marbling with the marbling medium. Once it’s ready it should have a slightly thick consistency so the marbling paint floats on top of the surface. You will want to pick a container to mix your medium and water in that allows your ornaments to be completely submerged when you dip them, containers like paper cups may be too small. Before you add you paint, submerge a folded paper towel or wash cloth in the bottom to cushion it in case an ornament is dropped. We recommend using plastic ornaments for this project, but If an ornament is dropped and breaks, don’t reach your hand in the water to retrieve it. Instead scoop out any broken pieces with a tool or craft strainer, discard the water safely and start over.

Choose Your Color Palette For Your DIY Christmas Ornaments

You can use as many colors as you like, but if your starting out and aren’t sure, start with 2-3 paint colors.

A hand squeezes magenta paint into a clear plastic container of water, where blue and green paint float on the surface—demonstrating how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint.

Create The Marbling Surface

For a large amount of color, drip a good amount of paint onto the surface of the water from about an inch away. Add smaller accent colors by pouring a small amount. You can drip your paint in a random pattern, or create circled by dripping different colors on the inside of each other. It may be hard to see some of the colors as they float on the surface, but they are there.  I have to say it’s a little bit of relaxing bliss for me to watch the colors swirl together. Once you have your colors added and  have covered the entire surface, use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles on the surface on the top of the water, use a stirring stick or toothpick to swirl the paint around the container. How the paint is swirled and drop will determine the pattern of the marbling. It’s fun to experiment and see the different patterns and colors mix together.

A hand uses a wooden stick to swirl blue and green paint on the water's surface in a clear plastic container—demonstrating how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint.

Marble The Ornaments

Add an ornament hook to the top of the cap loop and hold your ornaments  firmly, and dip the ornament into the water just until the round top of the ornament is submerged, being careful to not submerse it so much that water goes in the ornament. Remove immediately and hang to dry on a drying rack with wax paper or parchment paper underneath to catch the drips.

A hand dips a white ornament into a plastic container of water with blue and yellow marbling patterns, demonstrating how to make marbled Christmas ornaments with paint.

Fully dip the ornament into the marbled water

Changing Marbling Paint Colors In The Tub: Remove The Excess Paint

When you’re ready to change paint colors, you don’t have to dump the entire tub out, you jsut need to clean the paint off the the surface of the water marbling medium. Removing the old paint off the top of the water  is as easy as dragging a piece of paper across the surface to grab the extra paint.  Once the extra paint is removed, just add new paint with new colors (You can also use this technique on faux Easter eggs in the spring too!) Lay the paper flat and let dry or discard. The marbled paper can be upcycled  to create cards, scrapbook or made into other crafts. As the ornament dries and the excess water drips off the paint may lighten a bit.

Water marbled ornament in yellow and blue

Add A Ribbon To Hang

Once the marbled ornaments are completely dry, loop a piece of ribbon on twine through the loop and knot the top to make a pretty hanger. Cut the ribbon knowing you will double it to create a loop to hang the marbled Christmas ornament off of. Adding a bow also adds a sweet touch. Marbling can be very fun and it’s hard to stop once you start and you can create really fun color combinations! Once the ornaments are marbled, use card stock or blank card stock tags to create fun marbled Christmas cards  or gift tags with the left over paint and water!

DIY Water marbled ornaments with ribbon

 

Love this project? See how to create more marbled and swirled art with paint pouring.

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