Painted Porcelain Angel Ornament

This was one of the very first ornaments I made for this tree, but it is also the fastest, so I could save it for any last minute decorators out there. I see these paintable porcelain ornaments at Michael’s every year, and every year I talk myself out of trying them. But not this time. I do NOT consider myself a painter (yet, anyway. I’m working on it.) so don’t be turned off if you’re not either. This is an extremely simple design and I’ll walk you through every step of it.

Using a medium sized brush, make two little swipes. A J, and a backwards J, to make the outside edges of the angels skirt.

Make one more swipe down the middle to fill it in, and add a little more paint to get a more solid color.

To make the angel’s arm, swipe your brush in a C shape, letting it trail off delicately.

Fill it in with a little more paint to get better coverage.

A few little dots of peach to make hands and feet, and a larger dot at the top for the head. Add a little bump for the nose.

A straight line connects the mouth and the hand for the neck of the horn, and then the mouth of the horn on the other side of the hand is just a sideways hershey kiss.

Since I’m not a regular porcelain painter, I wanted to buy as few colors of paint as possible. So to get the color for the hair I mixed the gold and the peach together, then made little swoops with my paint brush to make angel’s curls. Add a couple of layers of this for good coverage.

Make the wing by painting half a heart. If you brush the paint on with short strokes it will make it look more like feathers.

Then just a little embellishing. A gold ribbon around the hem, a golden halo, and a couple of little swoops to highlight the arm. And you did it. You’re a decorative painter.

Because I have the hardest time not glittering something, I spread a little white glue on the edge and sprinkled glitter all over it.

These porcelain ornaments come with a hanger already attached, but I wanted to make it look a little more ethereal, so I tied a great big bow out of a piece of tulle and attached it with a little hot glue, and then let the ends hang long down behind.

Maybe I’m projecting, maybe painting is just intimidating to me, but anything is achievable if it’s just broken down into enough steps. This little angel is so simple that anyone, even I, can paint it, but it still looks fancy enough to celebrate.