How to up-cycle your old Christmas baubles…

Have you had the same old Christmas baubles and decorations for years and years? Or do you like to change it up every year? Either way, I’m going to show you how to breathe new life in to your old Christmas baubles in a simple way, using household items you probably already have. Which also means you can save money and decorate your home with zero waste, yay!

Every year when I decorate our tree I come across baubles that just don’t make the cut because they are either the wrong colour for the scheme I’m going for or they are just a bit plain and boring because they have come out of a bauble bumper pack (you know the ones.)

This project started as a bit of an experiment if I’m honest but I’m so over the moon with how they have turned out so I highly recommend using these techniques.

Well… what are they? I hear you scream!

Paint them!

But not with a brush, I have a way easier method! You collect up all of your leftover paint (just emulsion will do) in your cupboard and submerge the bauble in to the tin. I dunked mine around 3 times simultaneously which seemed to give a nice even finish. I then hung them inside a cardboard box to allow them dry as they drip for a while. I used some long sticks and threaded the baubles on so that they could sit and dry overnight.

When I woke up in the morning I was so happy with how they had turned out. The baubles have a matte finish and look good enough to eat! (I won’t eat them, don’t worry!)

Once you have a base colour you could dip half the bauble in to another colour using the same process as before to create a colour block design, This looks both modern and fun. I also tried this technique out on some glittery baubles that I already had not knowing if it would work but it did and looked amazing.

Use gold leaf…

I purchased some gold, silver and rose gold leaf sheets from Amazon to use on my baubles but I have to admit, I didn’t anticipate how time consuming it would be to get right. Hats off to these people that do huge projects with gold leaf.

Anyway, this is the process I used. First I took my bauble and covered half of it with a thin layer of Modge Podge (PVA will also work) and waited until it was almost dry. I then added some gold leaf and gently patted it on to the sticky bauble with a dry paint brush. Once it had adhered I began to carefully brush the gold to smooth it down and bring out the shine. This is where the difficulty occurred as bits began to flake off so I had to repeat the process again. Took me a while to do the entire bauble but I got there in the end and decided to just add a small piece of gold leaf to the others.

Use a gold permanent marker…

Once painted you’ll have quite a few plain baubles which look beautiful but if you wanted to add a little touch of gold then a permanent marker is the perfect solution, it’s also a Christmas essential lets face it!

You could draw on a design or illustation which is much easier than using paint and a small brush, or you could do something simple like stripes, stars or polka dots.

Add a new ribbon/string…

Most bog standard baubles come with a pretty naff piece of thread so you can upgrade them easily by using nice piece of ribbon or string. Such a simple but effective addition.

There are of course other ways you can up-cycle your Christmas baubles, such as decoupage but I really love how mine have turned out and really recommend using this technique.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, I’d love to know what you think.

Until next time,

Hayley x