holidays

Color Blocked Wood Ornaments – Tags and Balls

It wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t feel the need to make some ornaments.

Someone check my temperature if I ever decide not to be crafty at Christmas, okay?

This may turn out to be the longest running fever on record.

Seriously though, making ornaments the last few years is something I oddly enjoy. Is that a hobby? Guys, did I finally find a hobby?

Nah…

This year I wizened up an created ornaments that can be made over when I change my mind on colors or styles in the coming years. There’s something very freeing in the idea that you can change your mind later. I highly recommend this mindset.

Now, let’s move on from the self-analysis portion of this post because it is making me feel very uncomfortable.

I made painted ornaments in two different shapes. I’ll wax poetically talk about the round ornaments first and then finish with the wood tags.

Craft stores carry plenty of wood beads and wood rounds that can be used for knobs. They do not carry perfectly round wood balls in a 1.5 – 2-inch size, so I purchased mine on Amazon and they came already sanded, which was oh so helpful.

I needed to be able to hang these ornaments, so I went to Home Depot and found the smallest screw eyes they had and Handy Husband carefully drilled holes in the wood balls and inserted the screws. His tip is to make sure you have the drill bit touching the wood when you start the drill. This, hopefully, will prevent the ball from splitting.

Then I decided to color block these ornaments with blue and white craft paint.

Have any of you ever tried to paint a straight line on a sphere? Imagine trying to draw the equator on the globe and keeping your pencil line perfectly at 0 degrees latitude all the way around. It seems like it should be simple, but it’s actually quite tricky.

I gave up on using tape as my guide and put a rubber band around the wood ball and used that instead because it was easier to adjust. As long as the rubber band is tight, it’s pretty good at creating a clean line.

I messed up on two of the ornaments, so I painted those ornaments all blue and then attempted to freehand paint a white starburst on top.

It wasn’t as sharp and detailed as I wanted, but we’ve already established that a perfectionist I am not. We’ll call it interpretive art.

I really liked how the natural wood looked with the color blocking on the wood balls, but even I knew the tree needed more than 10 ornaments.

Handy Husband to the rescue! He cut me some wood tag ornaments from 1.5-inch lath and even sanded off the rough edges for me!

I made similar wood tag ornaments last year, but those were stained and remember, I was going for the natural wood look this year. Plus, we have power tools again, so Handy Husband could make the angled cuts I wanted on the wood tags.

Someone please ask me what I used to make the straight painted line on the wood tag ornaments.

Pretty please?

No, it wasn’t a rubber band.

It wasn’t tape.

Thank you for your confidence, but I didn’t freehand it.

I used mini Post-It notes. They worked great!

It’s probably abundantly clear from this blog that my decorating style – even my fashion style – is not overly fussy. Clutter makes me twitch. I don’t do a lot with busy patterns. I’m not a minimalist, but I do subscribe to the less-is-more theory.

And that definitely comes into play when decorating my Christmas tree. If ever there was a time to go full on with the glitz and sparkle, Christmas would be it.

I just can’t bring myself to do it even though I love how it looks in other people’s homes. Absolutely love it!

In this particular season of life, I really appreciate the understated look. The calmness of it. The clean lines. What can I say? It makes me happy!

And remember…I can change my mind later.


Here’s what you need to make the color blocked wood ornaments. 

Natural Wood Balls

Screw Eyes, zinc plated #216 1/2 inch 

Craft Paint

Wood Tags (precut and ready to go or you can make your own)

String or ornament hook to hang your ornaments on the tree


If you want other Christmas DIY ideas, I’ve got you covered!

Turn Building Blocks Into Christmas Ornaments

Dining Room Shelves Decked Out for Christmas

Easy Christmas Tree Artwork for Kids

Scrap Fabric for Christmas Tree Bows


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