How to Paint Inside of Glass Ornament Balls

Craft Tip for Making Colorful Glass Ornaments

Knowing how to paint the inside of glass ornament balls is a very helpful arts and craft tip. The technique described here will result in one solid color.

Remove the cap from the glass ball.

• The rim around the hole of the glass ball isn't always smooth. Sometimes there are sharp points of glass. Take care!

Rinse out the inside of the glass ball with rubbing alcohol (or surgical spirit in the UK), then rinse with water and let dry. (This step helps remove unseen oily patches or other impurities that might prevent the paint from sticking to the glass.)

Squeeze or pour paint into the glass ball.

Move the ball around, rolling it until the inside is completely and evenly coated. Add more paint as necessary.

Set the ornament upside down on an empty container to let the excess paint drain out.

The glass bulb needs to sit on the container without falling in.

For the 67mm ball and most larger balls, individual serving size pudding containers work well.

• If bulb is too small to sit on the container without falling in, prop it up with folded paper or cardboard. This often is necessary for the 55mm size ball, as shown in the above photo. (See ball on the far left above.)
  
  

• Depending on what paint you use, you may be able to just set the glass ball on top of the paint bottle to drain for a while (10-15 minutes or so), then later move the bulb to an empty container to finish draining and drying.
  
  

Allow the paint to dry. This usually takes at least 24 hours, and perhaps several days.

• I have read that using a hair dryer or punching a few holes in the sides of the container (to allow more air flow) helps speed up drying time. I haven't tried either method yet myself.
  

  
  

Occasionally, when the paint is dry and I am all set to proceed with working on an ornament, I will notice areas on the ball that are not completely and evenly covered with paint, even though they appeared to be when I first applied the paint. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, what do you do?

• If the particular ornament you are making will be partially covered with something (such as the beard on the Santa ornament), you may be able to get away with it and not have to add more paint.

• If you do not have that option (or choose to "fix" the paint job anyway), then pour in more paint and repeat the process of rolling the ball around and letting it drain and dry again.

Rinsing the inside of the glass balls with rubbing alcohol before beginning the project helps to prevent this problem from occurring. Apparently, the reason the paint doesn't always stick well to certain areas is due to some unseen oily patch or other impurity. The alcohol helps to wash away the impurity. So be sure not to skip this important step.

So now you know how to paint inside of glass ornament balls. I have found that knowing how to paint inside of glass ornament balls comes in mighty handy for many handmade ornaments!

Here are links to the ornaments that are painted on the inside:

For a complete "at a glance" listing of all the homemade ornaments featured on How To Arts and Crafts, with color photos and links to my pages showing you how to make them, please see Handmade Ornaments for All Occasions.

For more crafts tips, please see the Arts and Craft Tip and Technique Page. Please also read these important Ornaments Safety Tips.