DIY Faux Carrera Marble Ornaments

Hi guys, it’s Rena (aka The Cheese Thief) and today I’m here to show you how you can transform ordinary glass ball ornaments into elegant Carrera marble masterpieces.  I’ve been dreaming of remodeling my kitchen, and marble finishes are the new trend I’m seeing everywhere. I wanted to capture this trend with a fun and easy project and figured DIY Christmas ornaments were the perfect way to add some marble in my home.

If marble isn’t your thing, I also have another tutorial on how to create the colorful ball ornaments you see below, using a similar technique.

Supplies needed to make your own DIY Christmas Ornaments:

• Iridescent Glass Ball Ornaments
• White Acrylic Paint
• Small Paint Brush
• Sharpies or Alcohol Based Markers 
• Rubbing Alcohol

First, you’ll need to remove the top of the glass ball ornament and fill the ornament with acrylic paint. I put my paint into an old puffy paint container so I could easily fill it without getting it on the outside of the ornament.

Flip the ornament upside down and let any excess paint pour out (I used the original ornament packaging to hold up the ornament). After the paint is dry, take a black sharpie and draw random squiggly lines onto the ornament.

Next, dip a fine round paintbrush into alcohol and pat the excess alcohol with a paper towel. With the paintbrush, simply trace along the sharpie lines and you’ll start to see the sharpie lines blending. Go over all of the lines alternating between dabbing and feathering motions to create the marble effect.

To make the colorful ornaments, take any color sharpie and draw around the bulb.

Dip the ornament into a cup of alcohol for less than one second. If you dip the ornament for too long, all the sharpie will disappear and you’ll have to start over.  After the ornament is dipped, the sharpie ink will “melt” and blend.

And just like that your colorful DIY ornaments are complete! All you need is some ribbon or ornament hooks to put these creations on display.Making these DIY Christmas ornaments is something the whole family could do. You can play with mixing different sharpie colors and create different looks. Best of all, if you don’t like the design, just use alcohol to erase it and start over again.

I also made a quick DIY video of how to make these DIY Christmas ornaments – check it out.

Rena

Rena Tang (aka the cheese thief) is a wife, mother, programmer and lover of all things creative. She especially loves to make unique, cute, simple and inexpensive things from everyday items. You can check out her ideas and tutorials at thecheesethief.com or her youtube channel.