Decoupage Christmas Balls

Handmade ornaments vary from the best on the tree to "let's put this on the back side and hope no one sees", but if you want to do something like, say, a steam-punk, neo-victorian tree and not have it cost an arm and a leg, you're kind of stuck making your own. Decoupage is fairly easy to do,  and relatively inexpensive. This would be an easy craft to to with a kids group, but be prepared for incredibly sticky fingers.

You will need: 

Mod Podge (To make your own, mix two parts water to one part white glue and one part wood glue)

Plastic Christmas balls

A sponge brush

The paper or fabric you wish to decoupage the ornaments with. I printed out Christmas carols and used tea to age the paper

Cut or tear the paper into irregularly shaped pieces. Make sure not to get them too small, you want them big enough to cover the ball. Tearing will give you rough, unfinished edges, but it can be a little more difficult to control the size.

 

Using the sponge brush, paint the back of the paper with the mod podge solution. Stick the paper to the ball, starting from the bottom and working up. Smooth down the the paper by taking a little bit of the mod podge and rubbing it along the edge. 

 

Once the ball is entirely covered with the paper, paint a layer of mod podge over the whole thing. Use your fingers to smooth down all the edges and flatten out some of the wrinkles. Make sure that the mod podge is even, or it will give you a very uneven looking ball.

Hang them up to dry for at least three hours before handling them. If you noticed that some spots were missed, you can go back through and redo those spots without having to go back over the whole ball again.