This post is part of my week of Christmas ornament DIYs series. I’m sharing 7 different DIY projects for clear ball ornaments, each of which you can complete in 30 minutes or less. Today I’ll share how to paint inside clear Christmas ornaments, including a simple paint pouring technique that results in a beautiful faux marble ornament. This post originally appeared on bybrittanygoldwyn.com.
How to paint inside clear Christmas ornaments!
Hello and welcome to day 4 of the week of DIY Christmas ornaments! Today I’m going to share how to achieve a faux marble effect using a very simple paint pouring technique. That’s right, we’re going to cover how to paint inside clear Christmas ornaments!
This approach to painting is very forgiving because you’re pretty much just dumping paint in, shaking up the ornament, and seeing what happens. It’s a bit of a crapshoot, but I think mine turned out great!

Here’s what I used…
- Clear plastic ball ornaments
- Acrylic paints, at least two colors; the small 2-ounce squeezable bottles are best, but you can also use a funnel and a paint jar that has a wider mouth.
- Small paper cups
- Paper towels
- Disposable gloves
And here’s how to paint inside clear Christmas ornaments!
Step 1: Pour the first color into the ornament by turning the ornament on its side and squirting some paint in. You want the paint to run down the inside of the ornament from top to bottom.

Like these? Check out my easy DIY glitter ball ornaments, my DIY marbled clay ornaments, and my DIY acorn and wood bead garland!
Step 2: Pick a different spot on the ornament and pour another color. Repeat with different colors until you’ve covered most of the inside of the ornament. Don’t worry if there are some bare spots, and keep in mind that the colors will mix and create other hues.


Step 3: Cover the top of the ornament with a paper towel and mix the colors together. You can do this by rotating and vigorously shaking the ornament. You can also stick a toothpick down in to drag one color into another.



Step 4: Grab a paper cup and turn the ornament upside down. Let the excess paint drain out (there will be more mixing/marbling during this process) into the cup. This will help the paint dry as well.
Set them out to dry after the excess paint is out, pop the top back on, and hang.



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