If you’re looking for an easy and inexpensive craft project this Christmas, you’ll love the paintbrush Santa ornament below. It is cute enough to delight both the young and the young at heart.

This project is also a great way to reuse ordinary household items to make fun decorations for the holidays.

The step-by-step directions below will show you how to use a paintbrush to make a homemade Santa Claus ornament to hang on your Christmas tree this year.

How to make a paintbrush Santa

Every Christmas, I go craft shopping at the Dollar Store to make sure my holiday craft supplies are topped up. It’s helpful to have everything I need on hand when making all my festive Christmas decorations.

Three paintbrushes ended up in my shopping cart and two have already been made into cute ornaments. Make sure to check out my Grinch ornament and snowman ornament tutorials.

Now it is time to make a Santa Claus ornament.

Gather your supplies

To make this Santa paintbrush ornament you’ll need the following supplies:

1 paintbrush with a flat edge and hole in the top – 2″ in size
5 white pom poms – 1/2″
1 red pom pom – 1/2″
Thin green ribbon – 1/4″ wide and 8″ long
1 small piece of polyester batting – approximately 2″ x 8″
1 foam snowflake sticker – 3/4″
1 silk poinsettia flower
Christmas ribbon – 1/2″ wide and 10″ long
1 piece of white felt – 2″ x 2″
Small red plastic berry – 1/4″
Small wooden mini gift tag (optional, but adds a bit of extra decoration to the ornament)

You’ll also need these tools:

Scissors
Acrylic craft paints – red, white, black, and orange
Paintbrushes
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

Note: Hot glue guns and heated glue can burn. Please use extreme caution when using a hot glue gun. Learn to use your tool properly before you start any project.

Instructions for the homemade Santa ornament

Start by painting the handle of the paintbrush with red acrylic craft paint. Then, paint the bristles and metal area of the paintbrush with white craft paint.

Allow the paint to dry thoroughly.

Mix the orange and white paint in a small container to make a light peach color. This color will be the Santa’s face.

Use a small brush to paint a trapezoid shape on the metal area of the paintbrush that you painted white in the last step.

Allow this paint to dry.

For Santa’s hat, wrap a piece of polyester batting around the paintbrush, above the top of the peach trapezoid shape. Then, hot glue it onto the back of the paintbrush.

Next, wrap a 1/4″ green ribbon around the bottom edge of the polyester batting. Attach this on the back with hot glue.

Finishing Santa’s face and hat

Use a small paintbrush and black acrylic paint to make two eyes on the peach-colored area. Combine the white and red acrylic paint to make a dark pink color. Use this to paint two cheeks and a nose to finish Santa’s face.

To make Santa’s mustache, cut the piece of white felt into an inverted V shape. Then cut off the top point so it has a flat edge, as shown in the photo above.

Cut two small slits on each side of the felt to make his mustache hairs. I cut this free-hand, but you can download the pattern for the mustache here if you need it.

Glue the white “mustache” below the painted face. Use hot glue to add a red pom pom in the center of the mustache.

The next step is making the floral decoration on Santa’s hat. Cut a 1″ star out of a petal from your poinsettia pick. I cut mine to be a seven-pointed star.

Glue a white foam snowflake sticker and a small red plastic berry in the middle of the star. Attach this decoration to the top left side of Santa’s hat with hot glue.

Finishing the handle of the Santa Claus paintbrush ornament

Next, use hot glue to attach five white pom poms to the handle of the paintbrush.

To make the hanger for this Santa ornament, thread a 1/2″ Christmas ribbon through the hole in the top of the paintbrush. You can also tie a wooden mini gift tag through this hole if you are using one.

TADA! The Santa paintbrush is finished! He’s ready to hang on your Christmas tree and would also make a cute wall-hanging Christmas decoration.

Share this Santa paintbrush ornament project on Twitter

If you enjoyed learning how to make a Santa ornament from a paintbrush, why not share this craft project with a friend? Here is a tweet to get you started:

Get crafty this holiday season! 🎅 Transform an ordinary paintbrush into a cute Santa Claus ornament. This project is perfect for adding a homemade touch to your Christmas decor! Check out the step-by-step guide on Always the… Share on X

Pin the homemade Santa ornament

Would you like a reminder of this tutorial for making a paintbrush Santa ornament? Just pin this image to one of your Christmas boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

You can also watch our video on YouTube!

Yield: 1 Santa paint brush ornament

Paint Brush Santa Craft - Easy DIY Santa Ornament

Turn an ordinary 2-inch paint brush into a cute Santa ornament with just a few craft supplies.

This simple DIY paint brush Santa is fun to make and the kids will love to help.

Active Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty easy

Estimated Cost $5

Materials

2" paint brush with a flat edge and hole in the top of the handle
5 x white pom poms - 1/2"
1 x red pom pom - 1/2"
Green ribbon - 1/4″ wide and 8″ long
1 piece of polyester batting – approximately 2″ x 8″
1 foam snowflake sticker - 3/4"
1 silk poinsettia flower
Christmas ribbon – 1/2″ wide and 10″ long
1 piece of white felt - 2″ x 2″
1 x small red plastic berry - 1/4"
Small wooden mini gift tag (optional)

Tools

Scissors
Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks
Acrylic craft paint - red, white, black, and orange
Small paint brushes

Instructions

Paint the handle of the paint brush red.
Then, paint the bristles and metal area of the paint brush white.
Allow the paint to dry.
Mix the orange and white paint to make a light peach color.
Using this peach color, paint a trapezoid shape on metal area of the paint brush you previously painted white. This peach area will be Santa's face.
Allow the paint to dry.
Wrap a piece of white polyester batting above the peach trapezoid and glue it on the back of the paint brush.
Wrap the 1/4" green ribbon on top of the white polyester batting strip. Attach it on the back of the paint brush with hot glue.
Paint black dots to make eyes on the peach trapezoid shape.
Combine white and red paint to make pink paint. Use this to paint two cheeks and a nose on Santa's face.
For Santa's mustache, cut the white felt into the shape shown below. Then, cut 2 small slits on each side to make mustache hairs. Click here for the pattern for Santa's mustache the pattern for Santa's mustache.
Glue the "mustache" below the painted face. Then, hot glue a red pom pom to the center of the mustache.
For Santa's hat decoration, cut a piece of the red poinsettia flower pick into a star shape.
Attach the white foam snowflake sticker to the star with hot glue.
Finish the hat decoration by gluing a small red berry to the center of the snowflake.
Hot glue 5 white pom poms to the handle of the paint brush.
Thread the 1/2" Christmas ribbon through the hole in the top of the paint brush.
If you use a wooden gift tag, you can also tie it to the top hole.
With that, the paint brush Santa ornament is ready to hang on your tree!

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