DIY Acrylic Pour Ornaments

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Hi friends,

If you guys are new here (hi! if you are) you should know that this is my favorite post of the year! The Ornament Exchange just makes me so happy and officially kicks off Christmas here in my little corner of the interwebs.

This is the 4th Ornament Exchange I’ve participated in and I think they keep getting better and better. The first year I was paired up with Janet from Try It, Like It, Create It and I created a tech-inspired ornament for her. The second year I was paired up with Pam from P.S. I Love You Crafts and I created diorama ornaments for her. And last year, I was paired with Amanda from Prim & Propah and I created crayon melt ornaments for her.

I’ve enjoyed making things for all of my past partners, but I didn’t know any of them prior to the exchange. This year, I was partnered with someone I already knew; my friend Michelle from Our Crafty Mom!

I’ve known Michelle for a little over 2 years when she was a guest host of Merry Monday in September of 2017 and later became a permanent host with all of us. While we’ve never met in person, I’m so thankful to have her as part of my “tribe” to bounce blog-related ideas and questions off of and I was so happy to get her as my partner. If you don’t follow her already, check out her links below!

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram | G+

We emailed back and forth to talk about our decorating styles, traditions, etc. I found out she likes elegant decor in silver, aqua, and navy and has been collecting unique ornaments for over 30 years!

So because she loves collecting unique ornaments, I decided I would make her ornaments of the same style but in different shapes. I had planned to create an ornament collection and began brainstorming what the styles would look like. And then I changed directions completely when I got my new Cricut Maker.

I had been exploring the many new types of projects I can complete with the Cricut Maker and stumbled upon cutting things with the knife blade. I thought that this was a great opportunity to make something truly unique and customized for Michelle!

Supplies to Make DIY Acrylic Pour Ornaments

• Cricut Maker
• Cricut Knife Blade
• Cricut Chipboard
• Acrylic Paint in Your Colors
• Flood Floetrol
• Water
• Craft Sticks
• Plastic Cups
• Cling Wrap
• Heat Tool

I designed some ornament silhouettes to use for her ornaments and I decided to make them free cut files for you! You can download them below and use them to make your own ornaments or something else!

Christmas Ornament Silhouettes

Upload the cut files to Cricut Design Space and make sure the dimensions are smaller than 11 x 11. I did realize though, if you’re cutting out chipboard or wood you probably want to mirror the word ornaments so you have a smooth front. Also, the poinsettia and reindeer were really hard to cut out and the blade kept getting stuck in them. I ended up not sending Michelle those ones because I wasn’t happy with how they turned out, but I included them in the cut files because they would still be cute with vinyl or HTV.

To set up your Maker to cut the ornaments, move the star pieces all the way over to the right.

Change out the fine point blade with the knife blade.

Take a piece of chipboard and apply it to a mat. To make sure that it doesn’t move, use painter’s or masking tape to secure the edges.

Load it into the Cricut Maker, set the material to whatever you’re using, and hit “go”. Because this was the first time I did a project with the knife blade, I was unaware of how long the cutting would take. I knew that it would be longer than the vinyl I was typically used to, but OVER 11 HOURS?! This time may vary depending on if you go with the same thickness of chipboard as I did (or a different wood completely) but be warned. Set it up overnight and (hopefully) it’ll be done by the morning. :)

While they were cutting out I ran out to do some errands and stopped at the craft store. While I was there I found some wooden ornaments in various styles and I thought they would compliment the ones that were cutting out at home. Especially the “M” initial for Michelle!

I took the wooden ornaments home and mixed up the paint to do an acrylic pour. The best recipe I’ve found is 1 part paint, 1 part water, and 2 parts floetrol. Add each color in a separate cup and use craft sticks to mix well.

Now, the traditional way to do an acrylic pour is to put your colors in one cup, turn it upside down on a flat surface (like a canvas), and remove it to let it pour around everywhere. I knew I couldn’t do that since the ornaments had holes in them and were too small. So I decided to pour it out on a flat surface and dip it in. Because I didn’t want to get paint all over my table, I laid down some cling wrap and taped it in place. Plus, this made for a really easy clean up!

Pour out the paint on to the cling wrap covered surface. Because I was doing so many ornaments, I tried to change it up. For some I used all the paint and for others I only used 3 – 4 colors.

Using a plain craft stick, swirl the paints together.

Dip the ornament in the paint mixture and press down lightly. You want to make sure the entire surface is covered.

Pull it out of the paint and set it aside to dry. You can dip more in this mixture or add more paint to make a new one! Make sure, if your ornament has holes in the design, you blow the paint out so it doesn’t harden filled in. Once they’re all dry, repeat on the other side.

I found some fancier ornament silhouettes online that I also cut out of chipboard. I really liked these ones because they had larger surface areas. Because of that I took a heat tool to it (while it was still partially wet) and pulled out the “cells” of the acrylic pour. You can do this to some of the ones that I designed, but the cells may not show up as well.

Once all of the ornaments were completely dry, I noticed that some of the raw edges were still showing. Because Michelle likes silver in her decor too, I took some brushed metal paint and painted the edges.

The final thing I did was take one of the larger ornaments and signed it with a silver Sharpie.

I loved making these ornaments for Michelle! I like how they have the same style and color scheme, but each is different and unique. I hope Michelle likes them as much as I do!

This is just ONE of many handmade ornament tutorials that you can find in the 2019 Ornament Exchange. Make sure you go check it out and link your own ornament tutorials!

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