I will tell you a secret! Shopping holiday decor clearance is absolutely my favorite! I buy my Christmas decor after Christmas is over (for next years Christmas tree theme!). I have few tree theme ideas in mind usually an simply see what looks good and can be used! If you love classic Christmas color theme shopping holiday decor clearance is for you! Reds are always sold for Christmas and every store has them!

But today my post is about a different Christmas clearance item. As you may have guessed from the title, its Christmas bells! I found few (clearanced) pairs of plastic bells at Walmart last year and stocked up on them. I had the idea of aging and distressing them with acrylic paint. Creating some type of patina was my goal.

Then I got an inspiration to use ground cinnamon to create a faux rust patina to create rusty Christmas bells that look naturally aged. It worked perfectly. A bit messy and sweet smelling but absolutely worth it!

SUPPLIES YOU NEED TO MAKE DIY RUSTY CHRISTMAS BELLS.

Ground cinnamon
plastic bells or any other item you are applying faux rust to
acrylic paint. I used mix of brown, dark gray and black in 2:2:1 ratio. black paint is the lesser amount.
brush
surface or a paper plate to mix paints
garbage can
flattened cardboard box or any other surface protector to paint on

MAKING DIY RUSTY CHRISTMAS BELLS.

Remove any embellishments from the bells.

Gather paint.

Use flattened cardboard box to paint on and have a trash can next for shaking off ground cinnamon excess.

Mix paints.

Paint inside of the bell first then outside. Paint to cover the surface and do not overload paint or it will clumps when cinnamon is added. Simply brush on paint in thin even layer.

Paint two bells at once and then sprinkle cinnamon on wet paint generously.

Tap the bells on the inside of the trash can to shake off excess cinnamon powder.

Repeat with the remaining bells.

Let those DIY rusty Christmas bells dry completely upright and then flip them to the side in about two hours. This allows the inside to dry as well.

Use dry paint brush to shake loose cinnamon powder off of the rusty bells once they’re completely dry.

Enjoy decorating with your DIY rusty Christmas bells!

Cheers,

Nadia