A Playful Kitty Tutorial
Want a Christmas ornament featuring your kitty? You’re in luck! I’m going to show you how I made the adorable ornament featuring Cinco that you see above. This design is easy and totally customizable to fit your Christmas tree decoration scheme. Even better yet – it isn’t a breakable ornament! Your cat can knock it off the tree as many times as he/she wants to and it will remain intact.
What You Will Need
These supplies can be found at any craft store.
- A photo of your cat on regular printing paper.
- A smooth Styrofoam ball with a hole in one end.
- White embroidery lace
- Ribbon
- Acrylic paint
- White
- Whatever other colors you like (I used red and brown)
- Quick dry tacky glue
- A clear sealer (I used Modge Podge Puzzle Saver)
- Glitter glue
- A twist tie
- A Christmas ornament hook
- Scissors
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 1
Time to do a little bit of cutting. Cut the cat out of the photo and hold it against the styrofoam ball to make sure it will fit the way you want it to fit. You may need to print it a few times to get it to the right size. When you have found a position that you like that cat in (with the hole on the styrofoam ball facing up) mark the outline of the cat with a pencil on the ball. This is just for your own reference in the next step. These pencil marks will not show when you are finished.
Also, cut out the designs from the embroidery lace. You will need these in the next step.
Cut outs from the lace and the photo of Cinco.
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 2
Use the quick dry tacky glue to glue the designs from the embroidery lace all over the ball. Make sure not to place them within the outline you drew of your cat. I placed my lace flowers in a fairly random order. Allow the glue time to dry completely before moving on to the next step.
Helpful hint – Using a paintbrush to spread the glue will make the process less messy.
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 3
It’s time to paint! This will cover up the pencil outline of your kitty, so you may want to make mental notes of where it goes in comparison to your lace cutouts. First, put a white layer of paint over the whole styrofoam ball (lace designs included). This will help more of your colored paint to show up rather than getting stuck in holes. Once the white paint has completely dried, go over the styrofoam ball again with the other color(s) you have chosen. If you don’t like the color you chose, don’t panic, just go over the ball again in white. Allow your paint to dry completely before going on to the next step.
I wanted an antique sort of look for my ornament, so I chose a faded red (pinkish). I mixed together red and white to achieve this color. Then with a very wet brush, I went over the ball again with a chestnut brown and immediately dabbed off the moisture with paper towel. This leaves just a tint of the brown and a bit of an antique look.
I made a mistake on my first attempt. I used black paint and didn’t like it. You can see some of it left over. Art is knowing which mistakes to keep 🙂
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 4
Let’s add the kitty! Use a thin layer of your quick dry tacky glue to place your cat picture onto the styrofoam ball. Allow that glue to dry completely. Fix everything in place by brushing a coat of sealer over the top of the whole ball (photo included). Allow this to dry completely as well.
Cinco looking nice and shiny.
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 5
Use glitter glue (and any other embellishments) to finish up your decorating. Allow the glitter glue to dry. I used a silver glitter glue and outlined the photo of Cinco and all of the flowers. It smudged a bit as I handled the ball giving the ornament a glowing look.
I had a little too much fun with the glitter glue. Totally worth it!
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 6
Now that hole on the top of the ornament will come in handy. Take the twist tie and make a small loop at the top. Twist the rest of the twist tie together. Fill the hole in the top of the ornament with quick dry glue and put the twisted end of the twist tie into it. Leave a little steam sticking out with the twist tie loop. Allow the glue to dry completely.
Finally that drawer full of twist ties is coming in handy.
DIY Christmas Ornaments for Cat Lovers: Step 7
Last step! Tie your ribbon around the twist tie and glue the knot down to the ornament. This will hide the twist tie and help to hold it in place. Allow the glue to dry completely. Finally, add an ornament hook and hang it on your tree!
Don’t add a ribbon if you think it will be a problem for your cat.
Do you have any cat ornaments on your tree?
The end result!
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Oh wow!!! You are clever!!!! I may have to try this one!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Thank you so much! It is a fun little project. These look great when they are finished too. 🙂
Those are pretty. I wish I wasn’t so lazy, I would try to make one.
Thank you so much! There’s nothing wrong with being a little lazy sometimes 🙂
That is absolutely gorgeous! I think I could do it too! (My *entire* tree is cat ornaments.)
That is so pawsome! I bet your tree looks really cool. I only have a few cat ornaments. This ornament is pretty easy 🙂
you are going to love that for years to come
Thank you! I think so too. It’s a great way to preserve a memory 🙂
those are great Robin,xx Rachel
Thank you very much! I bet Speedy would look great on an ornament 🙂
Wow, Robin, this is so cute! Thanks for sharing it with us.
You are very welcome! I’m glad that it turned out as cute as it did. It was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest (though I changed it up quite a bit) and I wasn’t entirely sure what it would end up like.
way kewl guys !!!! thanx for sharin theeze tipz…..yur orna mints look grate !!
heerz two a halibut herring N haddock kinda week oh end ♥
Thank you so much! You know, you could even put a picture of tuna on your ornament 😉
This is really pretty – and I bet even my not-so-crafty human could do it!
Thank you! I bet she could too. It looks like it is complicated, but it really is only a matter of gluing and painting. The big secret is to let it all dry in between steps.
Those are really pretty Chrissymouse balls ! Purrs
Thank you so much! I wasn’t sure how they would turn out, but it seems they came out quite nicely 🙂 I’m still working on the Manna ornament.
How easy was that?!? Even the mom could do that, we bet.
It is deceivingly easy. People will think you put a lot more work into it than you really did 🙂 I bet your Mom could do it.
That looks fantastic!
Purrs xx
Athena and Marie
Thank you so much! It is a lot easier than it looks. I really enjoyed making it. I’m working on one for Manna too, but I’ve been super busy.