Handmade wooden Christmas ornaments are a brilliant way (read: excuse) to get creative and make a thoughtful add-on Christmas present for friends! Below are some practical tips for painting on wood and making your design pop.
Materials
- Wood slices or plain wooden disks, with drilled hole
- Twine
- Acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Palette
- Jar of water
- Tissues
- Pencil
- Charcoal pencil, white or black
- Rubber or putty rubber
- Permanent markers
Easy DIY wooden Christmas ornaments painting tutorial
Paint in a single colour first
While researching the best ways to paint on wooden ornaments, I found out that some wood can crack after it’s painted. I followed a tip from Feeling Nifty who suggested painting a single colour base first, leaving it overnight and checking the wood for cracking in the morning. This saves the effort of making the final painting only to find that the wood cracks. I didn't paint a base coat for small designs, like the pine branches above. I’m happy to report I didn’t encounter any cracking problems with these ornaments!
Sketch your design
Roughly sketch the design on top of the base coat before going over it in permanent marker. A white charcoal pencil was helpful for laying out the design and was easier to rub out than a regular graphite pencil. If you have one, an artist eraser/putty rubber/kneading eraser is also practical for not leaving pieces behind.
Best paintbrush types
As I soon found out, painting on wood is not as smooth as painting on canvas! What worked for painting larger areas was a stubby flat brush which easily snapped back into shape. I used a thinner round brush for details - again, the stubbier and stiffer, the better control you have.
Colour tip
Muted, or less saturated, colours look organic and go beautifully with natural wood. If you’d like to mute a colour, simply mix it with a dab of its complementary colour. Complementary pairs are:
Red-Green
Blue-Orange
Yellow-Purple
Painting to the edge?
With wood slices with the bark around them, I chose to leave a small gap around the painting as a way to frame the design. It takes a bit of patience, but produces a clean effect. In contrast, I went up to the edge with the plain wooden disks, as this seemed to work well with their flat, smooth finish.
Final result
Those are the technique tips done. And now, enjoy the fun of creating! Merry Christmas!
