Do you love the darker side of the holidays? When you do find a selection of sober tree decorations, they are usually way overpriced. Instead of buying new items upcycle your old decorations into spooky Gothic Christmas ornaments is the way to go.
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #1: Stencils
You can purchase small stencils of bats, skulls, ravens, cats, and spiders at crafting stores. You can also sometimes find these marked down after Halloween to get rid of overstock.
I prefer to use card stock to draw my own unique image. You do not have to be good at drawing, tracing a skeleton key would make a wicked stencil. Careful cut out the image on a mat using an X_ACTO knife. Tape the stencil in place and paint the image onto flat wooden ornaments that you already painted a solid color.
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #2: Stamps
I do love my stamps! I can’t seem to stop buying them. Etsy always has a nice selection of Steampunk stamps available which look great on bookmarks in metal tones. Punch a hole using a hole puncher and thread leather or ribbon to hang on the tree. This method is a quick and easy way to give your holiday tree a theme.
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #3: Alterations
Over the years family members, friends, and acquaintances have given me overly cute ornaments as gifts. I like to pull out my paints and go to work making them worthy of a spooky tree. Sweet angel cherub? Not after they have “blood” dripping from their mouths and dark sunken eyes. You can always spray paint a reindeer black so it resembles some sort of crazy death horse. Gift box ornaments simply need a color change. Paint over the festive sparkly colors with black for the box, and red for the ribbon. Fake blood left over from Halloween can work wonders on cheery ornaments.
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #4: Stickers
This is a great way to find a use for all those band bumper stickers you keep getting in your magazines.
Cut out cardboard shapes from cereal boxes or thick card stock. Ovals work quite nice with most Gothic elements. Cut out an shape of the sticker, capturing an interesting element of the sticker. Attach it to the card stock. Make sure you do both sides!
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #5: Well Hello, Mr. Teddy Bear
I am always finding extra metal studs around my house, I think they breed or something. Any small stuffed animal can have piercings, metal studs, safety pins, and other painful looking accessories added.
Make your own Gothic Christmas Ornaments #6: Steampunk
One of the most awesomesauce themes for a tree! You can find cogs, keys, gears, lace and other fun stuff quite easily at swap meets, yard sales, thrift, and hardware stores. Thread a piece of leather through the holes and tie off. You can join a few elements together to create one of a kind pieces.
Have a spooky Noel!
