DIY Resin Christmas Ornaments: A Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide

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Introduction

Want to make your own resin Christmas ornaments this year? You’re in the right place.

Resin ornaments are one of the friendliest holiday projects you can pour: the molds are tiny, a single bottle of resin makes a whole batch of gifts, and — unlike a serving tray or a floor — a mistake here costs you a few grams of resin, not a weekend. If you’ve already made coasters or a serving tray, you already have every skill this project needs, just applied at ornament scale.

This guide walks you through everything you need to make resin Christmas ornaments from scratch: the supplies, whether to use UV or epoxy resin, a full step-by-step pour, a handful of design ideas, and the mistakes that trip up almost everyone’s first batch.

Best of all, this is a genuinely easy project — no respirator-level setup for a small batch (gloves, ventilation and eye protection still apply), no all-day pours, just a relaxed afternoon and a tray of ornaments to show for it by evening.

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What You’ll Need for Resin Christmas Ornaments

Ornaments have one of the shortest supply lists of any project on this site. If you’ve read our Essential Resin Tools guide, you likely already own most of the base kit — this list only covers what’s specific to ornaments.

One timing tip if you’re making these as gifts: ornaments need to be finished (and fully cured) before you can wrap them, so order your supplies with a buffer. If you don’t already have Amazon Prime, its free delivery can be the difference between a mold arriving in time for a weekend project and missing your gift deadline entirely.

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💧 The Resin

Our Pick: LET’S RESIN UV Resin — a fast-curing, crystal-clear formula that’s ideal for small, thin pours like ornaments. It sets under a UV lamp in minutes instead of days, which matters a lot when you’re trying to finish a whole batch of gifts before the holidays.

Standard 2-part epoxy works too, and it’s the better choice for a chunkier ornament (more on that below) — see our full resin comparison guide if you want to weigh every option.

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✨ Mica Powder & Color

This mica powder set covers reds, greens, golds, and whites in one purchase — everything you need for a full range of holiday color palettes, from a classic red-and-gold bauble to a frosty white-and-silver snowflake.

If you want a more transparent, stained-glass look instead of an opaque one, alcohol inks give you that translucent, watercolor-swirl effect that works beautifully in a snowflake or geode-style ornament. Use them in epoxy only: UV resin makers generally advise against alcohol ink, which can stop a UV piece curing properly.

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❄️ Molds & Inclusions

Silicone ornament molds — snowflakes, baubles, trees, and stars are all widely available — are the one ornament-specific purchase you’ll need to make; look for a multi-cavity tray so you can pour a full batch at once. When you compare molds, look for thick, glossy silicone cavities (they give a shiny finish straight out of the mold), a built-in hanging-hole post, and a shallow depth of about 1/4 inch or less so each ornament cures evenly.

For inclusions, fine glitter, dried flowers, tiny pinecones, or small metallic flakes all suspend well in a thin ornament pour — press them in gently once the resin starts to gel so they don’t sink straight to the bottom.

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🔩 Findings & Tools

A few small parts turn a resin shape into a hangable ornament:

• Jump rings or eye pins, for hanging (inexpensive assorted packs cover every ornament you’ll make this season)
• Ribbon, twine, or thin ornament hooks
• A pin vise or a fine sewing pin, for placing your hanging hole (more on timing below)
• Silicone craft mat, to protect your work surface
• A toothpick, for popping bubbles and swirling color

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UV Resin or Epoxy: Which One for Ornaments?

Both work — the right pick depends on how thin your ornament is and how much time you have before you need a finished batch.

Choose UV resin if: your ornament is thin (under about a quarter-inch, poured and cured in 1/8-inch layers), you want to see a finished piece the same afternoon, or you’re batching a large number of gifts and can’t wait days between pours.

Choose epoxy if: you’re pouring a chunkier ornament — a thick bauble or a layered design — where UV light can’t fully penetrate and cure the center. Epoxy’s even, all-the-way-through cure handles depth better; you’ll just be waiting the standard 24–72 hours instead of minutes.

For your first batch, we’d lean UV resin — the fast turnaround means you can pour, cure, and fix mistakes in one sitting rather than finding out three days later that a bauble stayed tacky.

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How to Make Resin Christmas Ornaments: Step-by-Step

1. Prep your molds. Make sure each cavity is clean, dry, and sitting on a level surface — a wobbly mold pours unevenly and can trap air along one edge.
2. Mix and color your resin. Measure carefully by weight (not by eye) — small batches punish measuring mistakes more than a big coaster pour does. Stir in a small pinch of mica powder (in UV resin keep it light, since heavy pigment blocks the cure, and save alcohol ink for epoxy); a little goes further than you’d expect in an ornament-sized pour.
3. Add your inclusions. Sprinkle in glitter, press in a dried flower, or swirl a second color with a toothpick. Do this while the resin is still fully liquid so inclusions settle where you want them, or wait until it starts to gel if you want them to stay suspended near the surface.
4. Pour and de-bubble. Fill each cavity just to the rim (a slight meniscus is fine, but overfilling leaves flashing to sand), then pop any trapped bubbles with a quick pass of a heat gun or a small butane torch (see our heat gun vs. hair dryer guide if you’re deciding between tools). Small, deep cavities hide bubbles more than a flat pour, so give it a second pass about a minute later.
5. Cure. Under a UV lamp, thin ornaments typically cure in a few minutes — check your resin’s specific instructions for cavity depth. Epoxy ornaments need the standard 24–72 hours, undisturbed and dust-free.
6. Demold. Once fully cured (not just dry on top), gently flex the silicone mold to pop each ornament free.
7. Add your hanging hardware and finish. Attach a jump ring through your pre-formed hole, thread ribbon or ornament hooks, and give the piece a quick buff with a microfiber cloth.

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💡 Pro tip: place your hanging hole before the resin fully hardens, not after. A tacky-stage hole is the tidiest option. Once the piece reaches a tacky, semi-firm stage — a minute or two into a UV cure, or a few hours into an epoxy one — press a pin vise or a fine sewing pin through near the top edge and let the resin finish curing around it. You’ll get a clean, pre-formed hole with no risk of a last-minute crack.

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Ornament Design Ideas to Try

• Glitter gradient snowflake — layer clear resin with a gradient of white-to-silver glitter for a frosted look.
• Pressed-flower bauble — suspend a small dried flower or sprig of baby’s breath in a clear round ornament.
• Personalized name or initial ornament — write a name or initial in gold paint pen on a backing layer, then seal it under a clear resin pour.
• Geode-style swirl — in epoxy, use alcohol inks in two or three colors and drag a toothpick through them before they set, for a marbled, geode-like effect.

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Common Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

• Trapped bubbles in small, deep cavities. Ornament molds hide bubbles more than a flat coaster pour — pop them twice, once right after pouring and again about a minute later.
• Drilling a fully-cured ornament. Placing the hole while the resin is still tacky is tidiest. If you missed it, drill slowly with a small bit or pin vise once fully cured, with the piece backed by a wood block.
• Overloading a small pour with pigment. Too much mica powder or ink in an ornament-sized pour can leave it permanently tacky or cloudy — start with less color than you think you need.
• Demolding too early. A UV-cured piece can look solid on top while the center is still soft. Give it the extra minute your resin’s instructions call for, especially on a thicker bauble.
• Mold-release issues on detailed shapes. A finely detailed snowflake or star can be trickier to release cleanly than a simple round shape — flex the mold gently from the back rather than pulling at the ornament itself.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Keep Learning on ResinAffairs.com

That covers resin Christmas ornaments from start to finish — here’s where to go next:

• 🎃 Halloween Resin Crafts for Beginners → — six small spooky projects to warm up with before the Christmas batch
• 🎁 Resin Gift Ideas for Beginners → — more handmade gift projects, a natural next read if you’re gifting this year.
• 🧪 How to Pick the Perfect Resin for Your Project → — a deeper look at resin types if you want to go beyond UV vs. epoxy.
• 🛠️ Essential Resin Tools Every Beginner Needs → — the full base toolkit behind every project on this site.
• 🩹 Common Resin Problems and How to Fix Them → — for troubleshooting stickiness, bubbles, or soft spots on any resin project, ornaments included.
• 💗 Valentine’s Resin Jewelry → — the next gifting season: heart pendants, studs and keychains made with the same small molds.
• Last-Minute Resin Gifts You Can Still Finish Before Christmas

A single afternoon and a handful of small molds is all it takes to have a tree’s worth of handmade ornaments ready to hang or gift. Go pour something small and festive.