Easy DIY Faux Jadeite Ornaments

Whose already decking the halls? I am! Over the past few weeks I have been pulling my Christmas decor out in anticipation for the most wonderful time of year. I have also been doing a lot of crafting
for this holiday season.

With my love for jadeite and wanting to add to my jadeite collection but not wanting to spend a lot of money last year I attempted to make some jadeite colored ball ornaments for Christmas, the ones where you just squirt the craft paint in the ornament and swoosh it all around. I loved the idea but in the end they mostly turned out to be a hot mess with peeling paint and what not so I never shared. A definite Pinterest fail! LOL.

This year I spied some jadeite colored milk glass ornaments that I fell in love with but with not wanting to spend $13 an ornament my DIY brainstorming began. I would post a pic of my inspiration but I do not want to get fussed at from the company that makes them. Once you see what I came up with you may know which ornaments caught my eye.

I took a trip to one of my go to stores, Hobby Lobby, in hopes of finding similar shaped ornaments as the ones that inspired me. I ended up finding this set of three ornaments. Of course they were half off but even if they were not that is three ornaments for just $12 which is basically three ornaments for the price of just one of my inspiration ornaments. 

These glass ornaments really are gorgeous as is so if you do not want to make jadeite ornaments they are still a find. For faux jadeite ornaments you can actually use any type of ornament you choose  because it is that simple of a project. I just like ornaments with more interest. You can even use shatterproof ornaments if you want to! Just make sure the toppers can pop off.

After picking out your ornaments you will need to find these craft paints. The Decor Art Pistachio Mint came from Hobby Lobby. The Martha Stewart Pearl Mint Chip came from Michaels. I will tell you around here craft paint is hard to find. I guess with everyone staying home crafting the stores can't keep up with the demand. 

You will need a piece of styrofoam which I saved from things we ordered. You will also need some skewers. You can find them pretty much anywhere. The grocery store has a bag of 100 for less than $2 I think it was. You will carefully pop off the ornament toppers and set them aside till they are ready to be put back on then place your ornaments on the skewers to make for easy painting and drying.

Next you will just start painting the ornaments. Now this will take some time! I created 6 ornaments over a two day period. You have to let each layer of paint dry else you will pull the previous coat off. I ended up doing four layers of the base paint and then two layers of the pearl paint. Once you are happy with the look then you can choose to seal them with either a satin or glossy sealer. I used satin Mod Podge. 

Between the pearl paint and the satin Mod Podge they came out pretty shiny.  I love the slight difference in shading thru out.

There you  have it!
The easiest way to create faux jadeite ornaments. You can place them in a bowl for display or hang them on your tree. I topped mine off with some really cute snowy glittered gingham ribbon I found at Walmart. I plan on keeping the ornaments out all year on display in some form or fashion so it will be easy to swap out the ribbon.