Christmas Tree Light Bulb Ornament

I made this light bulb ornament the same year I made the angel, snowman, and penguin , in December of 2000.

However, I never wrote a tutorial on this version. In fact, I made several of these, gave a couple as gifts and sold the rest in the craft store I used to own.

I’ll do my best to give you some general instructions in case you want to make one, but it’s been a while, so bear with me!

I’m not going to write the instructions out formally as I usually do, only because I might miss a step as it’s been 9 years since I made it.

So here goes.

Before I do though, here’s a video I made showing how to paint pine trees. For the light bulb ornament in this post, I used a tiny paint brush for the lights, giving them a soft glow.

I usually prepare my light bulbs by making sure they are free of dust, rinsing in water, wiping off, then giving them a rinse in white vinegar. Usually I paint them with a brush, but this particular one I used spray cans. The reason I did that, and you can hopefully see in the photo below, was the create a sunset effect that would be more difficult with a brush (not impossible, just more difficult).

I sprayed the bulb with a mauve first. Most of it won’t show in the finished product, but it’s still an important factor. After that was dry, I sprayed the top half with a dusty country blue, putting a thicker layer toward the top and just a dusting near the middle. The idea was to blend the blue into the mauve.

Note: You have to be careful with spray paint as it will run if you have a heavy trigger finger. Better to err on the side of caution and use several light sprays, letting them dry in between.

Next I painted the Christmas tree. That seems to be the “wow” factor of this ornament, and people comment on what talent I have, but really, the trees are very, very simple. Just check out the video demonstration above.

After adding the tree, and then the snow on the branches, I used a small paint brush and dabbed off all the excess paint, then gently dabbed on the “lights”. They blend into the snow and look like they are really glowing. :)

To add the “falling snow” I splattered it with watered down white paint using a tooth brush.

I glued some rick rack around the neck of the bulb, gluing a loop of ribbon underneath the rick rack.

Lastly, I used Sno-Tex snow paint to cover the top of the bulb and to coat the bottom of the bulb as well.

And of course, the finishing touch was 2-3 coats of clear acrylic sealer (I used matte, not gloss).

How’s that for a tutorial? I feel like I could go make another one now! ;)

Christmas Tree Light Bulb Ornament

 

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Author: Amanda Formaro

Supplies

• light bulb
• paint
• toothbrush
• paintbrush

Directions

1. I usually prepare my light bulbs by making sure they are free of dust, rinsing in water, wiping off, then giving them a rinse in white vinegar. Usually I paint them with a brush, but this particular one I used spray cans. The reason I did that was to the create a sunset effect that would be more difficult with a brush (not impossible, just more difficult).
2. I sprayed the bulb with a mauve first. Most of it won’t show in the finished product, but it’s still an important factor. After that was dry, I sprayed the top half with a dusty country blue, putting a thicker layer toward the top and just a dusting near the middle. The idea was to blend the blue into the mauve.
3. Next I painted the Christmas tree. That seems to be the “wow” factor of this ornament, and people comment on what talent I have, but really, the trees are very, very simple. Just check out the video demonstration above.
4. After adding the tree, and then the snow on the branches, I used a small paint brush and dabbed off all the excess paint, then gently dabbed on the “lights”.
5. To add the “falling snow” I splattered it with watered down white paint using a tooth brush.
6. I glued some rick rack around the neck of the bulb, gluing a loop of ribbon underneath the rick rack.
7. Lastly, I used Sno-Tex snow paint to cover the top of the bulb and to coat the bottom of the bulb as well.
8. And of course, the finishing touch was 2-3 coats of clear acrylic sealer (I used matte, not gloss).

ANOTHER CRAFTY IDEA >>  Paper Snowman Luminaries in 3 Minutes

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Amanda Formaro

Amanda Formaro is the crafty, entrepreneurial mother of four children. She loves to bake, cook, make kid's crafts and create decorative items for her home. She is a crafting expert and guru in the kitchen and has appeared online and in print publications many times over the years. She is also the editor for the Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip and owner of FunFamilyCrafts.com.

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