How to Make a Texas Ornament

by Kimmie Gillespie December 13, 2020

I am in love with my Texas ornaments and I want to share with all of you how to make one! It’s very easy to gather the materials you need and follow my simple steps to replicate my KD Texas Map style.

Things You Will Need to Make a Texas Ornament

a Texas wood cutout (so many options on Etsy, get one with a hole)
gesso or spray paint
acrylic paint (your choice of colors)
modeling paste
a pencil
a sponge (or crumpled up paper towel)
gloss spray
ribbon

Homemade Texas Ornament Step by Step

1. Gesso or Spray Paint Your Texas Cutout

Starting off with a solid color is very helpful. If you know you want your ornament to have one color scheme I recommend spray painting the wood that color. If you want a very colorful ornament gessoing the wood works great to have a white surface to allow colors to pop.

Gesso-texas-wood-cutouts

I was making multiple ornaments at one time, so I laid all of them out on my drop cloth and used a spray gesso. You can see where the wood cutouts were sitting!

2. Layering Similar Colors

If you are doing a multiple color scheme, skip to step 3. If you are doing one color scheme you can start painting your Texas wood cutout. I recommend using a sponge or crumpled paper towel or sponge. Use similar colors to layer on top of each other giving to ornament some texture and dimension.

I had originally spray painted these with red. I then layered on a dark red, a pink, and a hint of brown using a crumpled paper towel.

3. Drawing the Texas Highway Lines

To make your ornament just like a KD map, you need to create your highway lines. Feel free to just look off of my ornament. If you want to be super accurate, you can look at a real Google Map of Texas.

Texas-highway-lines

4. Individually Painting Sections of the Texas Map

If you are using one color scheme, skip to step 5. For a multiple color scheme paint each section of the map with the colors of your choice. You can use contrasting colors or similar colors depending on how you want your ornament to look. When this is dry you can also use a sponge or crumpled paper towel to add yet another layer on top of your sections.

texas-ornament-painted-sections

I used different shades of yellows. Not pictured, after this dried I took a paper towel and added a yellow/orange hue on top to give some more texture and dimension to my ornament.

5. Complete the Texas Highways with Modeling Paste

Mix the modeling paste with white paint and then using a tiny brush thickly add the mixture over the pencil lines.

6. Coat Your Texas Ornament with a Protective Spray

I like to use a Krylon gloss spray, but any gloss coating will work just fine, even if you use a simple gloss Modge Podge. This step isn't super necessary but will protect your ornament for years to come and keep the modeling paste from ever cracking off.

7. Add the Ribbon to Hang on the Tree

Choose a ribbon you like that will compliment your ornament. The holes in the wood cutout are not very large so keep that in mind, you will want a skinny ribbon. Tip: Pull both ends of the yard from the back and pull through towards you. Leave the hoop as long as you'd like, then tie a bow like you would tie a shoe.

Handmade-texas-ornament

I'd love to see how yours turned out! Leave a photo in the comments or ask any questions you may have along the way. Meanwhile, you can check out my step-by-step quick video I had posted on my Instagram Reels.