Learn how to make pretty DIY heart ornaments with painted folk art by transforming wooden hearts using budget-friendly acrylic craft paint. They are great as Christmas tree ornaments, gifts, or for Valentine’s Day tree ornaments.
Most heart ornaments I found online are felt heart ornaments or clay heart ornaments and I just wanted to make something different plus I don’t like sewing, yah know?!?! No-sew is always great in my book!
Pretty handmade DIY heart ornaments with folk art
Video tutorial
As usual, I made a step-by-step video tutorial for you so you can see what my hands are doing. If the video doesn’t load on you then you can watch it on my YouTube Channel instead as well.
Step-by-step instructions
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I thought of making heart ornaments like when I stumbled across an image on Pinterest and knew I could replicate something like this for myself because I didn’t want to buy them and I love to paint.
All the colors used are optional and you can use whatever different colors you would like. When I painted my DIY easy folk art cutting board and pumpkin I used a dark green color to start with which also looks pretty with the florals. I prefer the dark colors underneath but I’ve seen lighter colors in old books and they look pretty too.
I like using small food containers used for salad dressing or condiments for my craft paint while working on a project so the paint doesn’t dry out.
Step 1: Paint the hearts with a base color
I brushed black craft paint onto the wooden hearts with a broad craft brush. I needed two coats.
Step 2: Paint an edge border
After the base color had completely dried, I brushed on a red border with a small flat craft brush to the edges of the hearts. I also needed two coats. Make sure to paint the sides as well.
You can paint both sides of the heart or just one side. The back side is also a great place to add a message or names if you give them as gifts or gift tags.
Step 3: Line the border with dots
I used a medium-sized dotting tool to add yellow dots to the edge of the red border. Just dip the tool into the paint and keep dotting. I love the dotting tools and have used them for many projects. They are the easiest way of adding a dotted pattern (They are also great for adding details to fingernail designs.)
Step 4: Use a pencil to draw the floral heart pattern on the heart
Below you can see the floral pattern for the heart design that I drew with a pencil. Don’t worry about being too exact.
Step 5: Paint the floral pencil pattern with craft paint
I can only recommend watching the floral pattern painting steps in my video. It definitely helps seeing what my hands are doing and the way I blend the colors.
I used my special angled craft brush for most of the floral pattern. It is such a useful brush for such details.
Photos 1-3: First, I painted the stems and leaves by simply covering them in a pre-mixed darker green craft paint and then added some yellow and white details. Don’t overthink it! It will look great. You can always add more dark green.
Photos 4-8: After that, I painted the flowers and bottom heart with some red paint. I have also seen some similar tulip flowers painted in blue which looks beautiful but my color scheme matched better with the red which you’ll see later. I added the same lighter details with white and possibly a bit of yellow the same way I did with the leaves.
Photos 9-13: Now it is time for the dotting tool again. This time I added white dots though to the flowers and the single bottom heart. If you dip the dotting into the paint once and keep dotting, the dots gradually get smaller on their own. It’s so easy even though it looks like it’s not. You can always practice on a piece of paper first.
I ended up painting mostly yellow daisies and you can add some more dots to their center too if you like the look.
Step 6: Attach ribbon or twine
I used my Dremel and a small drill bit to drill a hole into the top of the hearts. Then I cut some twine and added some tape to the end so I could easily thread it through the hole, knot the twine, and trim it.
I also tried cutting the same twine and then hot-gluing the trimmed knot to the top of the heart ornament. Honestly, I liked that method better because it was faster and easier and didn’t add a hole to the top of the heart.
Photos of my finished DIY hearts
And here you can see one heart as a Christmas tree ornament outside in my pine tree and all the finished hearts in our small dining room tabletop Christmas tree.
Can you believe that this is the first time ever that I’m using traditional red in our Christmas decor? The red ribbon bows and disco balls are the cherry on top. I’m so glad disco balls are making a comeback. I used them a long time ago and I’ve had my giant disco ball under the coffee table since 2014 and still love it. It doesn’t get more magical than the sun shining in onto a disco ball and creating a sparkling pattern on the walls and ceiling.
I love these beautiful hearts and they make me think of growing up in Germany.
Tschüß,
