DIY Vintage Mercury Glass Inspired Ornaments

I love the look of Mercury Glass Christmas Ornaments, especially if they are vintage, but mercury glass ornaments can be quite expensive and so I thought that I’d try my hand at DIY’ing some faux Mercury Glass -inspired ornaments for our Christmas tree this year.

I think that they turned out great and I had a lot of fun making them. Sure, mine don’t look too much like the real thing, but they still have a nice vintage look to them.

This next picture will show you what I already had on hand to work with. I’ve had these large plastic Christmas bulbs for years now and obviously this isn’t their first makeover. I spray painted the green ones one year and for another year I added a black chalkboard paint to some others.

If you are interested I once did a blog post about 3 different ways to give new life to Christmas bulb Ornaments. See it HERE. And Now I guess I have 4 different ways 🙂

The red lightbulbs came from my mother-in-law who was going to throw them away after replacing her outdoor holiday lights one year but then I told her that I wanted them.

So as you can see, this idea that I’m sharing today is a simple way to reuse the ornaments that you already have and give them a new look for your Christmas decorating this year.

A little spray painting hack of mine, is to place the ornaments on a skewer and then stick the pointy end of the skewer into the ground or into a piece of cardboard. This allows you to paint all around the bulb. You will still have to paint the tops of the bulbs once they are dry, but this is a great way to get a lot of area covered at first.

Now because I already had some painted bulbs on hand, I just picked up a can of cheap silver spray paint to use. However, if you are working with glass or clear Bulbs, perhaps you will want to try out the Mirror Spray Paint. I’ve seen other crafters use it and it looks neat. I actually thought that the Mirror spray paint seemed a bit pricey since it was over ten dollars for a small can, so that is one reason I chose a silver spray paint, but the second reason was that I wasn’t sure that the mirror spray paint would work on my ornaments that weren’t glass.

Once my bulbs were painted with the silver spray paint and had time to dry, I went to my craft paints and grabbed a black paint and a rust color paint. I also grabbed a paint tray, paint brush and a piece of cut-up sponge.

I know that this next picture looks like a hot mess because it is 🙂 But I just wanted to show you how I placed the two colors next to each other on the tray and then used the sponge to dab it picking up both colors.

Now to give my bulbs that vintage-aged look, I just dabbed the two colors of paint onto the bulb using the sponge.

Then I used a paper towel to smear the paint on the bulb. I just rubbed the paper towel around the bulb to blend the colors in. I also used a wet paper towel in areas where I wanted less paint.

Now for the last step, I just used a paintbrush to brush on more of the rust colored paint. I painted the ornament tops with it and then I dabbed a little bit more of the rust paint onto the bulbs.

I really like this rust paint. It looks so real once it is dry. I used this same rust paint on my Chandelier Makeover and was pleased with it then too.

I followed the same process as above when painting the light bulbs. Once the Light Bulbs where dry I tied a blue and white string around them to create a garland.

I’ve hung the garland of light bulbs on our fireplace mantel.

I love the fun whimsical look they add.

I think that the rust paint is what really gives these ornaments that vintage aged look.

I plan to put the bulbs on my Christmas tree this year, but I just haven’t brought it out yet.

So for now I just have the bulbs sitting on an old trunk, but that’s the fun thing about Christmas bulbs, they look pretty on a tree, or just sitting out. I also love to fill large trays or baskets up with bulbs and use it as Christmas decorations.

This year I’m thinking that I’ll decorate our home with a lot of neutrals and silver, but that could still change. Once I start pulling out our decorations my decorating plans usually go out the window as I end up bringing it All out. Ha! Sound familiar to you?

So what do you think of my Faux Vintage Mercury Glass- Inspired Christmas ornaments? I think that it’s a wonderful way to give your old ornaments a new – old look 🙂

Here are some supplies you may need:

• Christmas bulbs
• Clear Christmas bulbs
• Silver Spray Paint
• Mirror Spray Paint
• Black Craft Paint
• Rust Craft Paint
• Paint Tray
• Sponge for painting
• Paint brush
• Blue (or other color) Bakers String

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

Emily