Christmas Tree Decorations for Creative Kids!
With all the events of this year, and uncertainty about restrictions, it's time to adapt and re-invent so Christmas remains a special and memorable time for everyone.
There are so many crafty things that you can make to brighten up your house this Christmas! Some ideas include- making Secret Santa presents, Stocking Fillers for the kids and friends, Gifts for Staff, friends and Teachers,Cards, Santa letters, Advent calendars, Signs, Christmas Decorations for the tree, table setting and everywhere!
The materials you'll be using for these tutorials are as follows,
- Christmas coloured Life of Colour paint pens
- Silky stix
- Wood slices and/or baubles
- String
- Scissors
- Clear varnish
Windy snowman using silky paint Stix
Grab your Silky Paint Stix for this snowman and you'll make it in no time! This craft is perfect for kids every age, the silky paint stix make it a fun process!
Step one- Choose your white silky stix to build the base of your snowman with three round shapes stacked on top of each other.
Step two- Once the white silky stix paint is dry you can add black buttons, eyes and black dots in a row for a smiley face. Our snowmans black hat has flown away in the wind and so we painted it just above his head to one side. No snowman is complete without a orange carrot nose so go ahead and add one to your snowman!
Step three- Grab your white silky stix again and paint the ground surrounding the snowman and be sure to take the horizon around halfway up the body. A small smear of black, at the base of the snowman, blended with the silky stix will give the look of a shadow.
Along the top of the white snow horizon paint some green triangular shape pine trees with a 3mm green paint marker.
Step four- Snow on top of the pine trees is achieved with a multitude of tiny white dots. Two stick shaped black arms reaching for the wind blown hat are also covered in snow to make the snowman look chilly and winter blown.
Step five- Paint a red scarf and hat band to add even more Christmas cheer to your snowman. More tiny white dots everywhere for snow and then your wood slice is ready to hang!
Adorable reindeer wood slice
Reindeers are part of the Christmas imagery, and this adorable and easy to make reindeer will be a fave ornament in your tree! Kids will learn how to work by decomposing a complex drawing into simpler, solid-coloured shapes, a skill they can later use to bring their favourite animal or their beloved pet into an ornament!
Step one- Paint a circle shape near the centre of the wood slice using a 3mm brown paint marker. From the bottom of the circle paint curved lines all the way to the bottom of the wood slice leaving a rectangle shape in the centre section bare.
Step two- Add a set of almond shaped ears onto the top sides of the reindeers head and make sure you leave enough space to fit two simple shaped antlers.
Step three- “Glitterise” the reindeer face with a brown glitter paint pen and paint a heart shaped face and brown glitter chest.
Step four- An adorable reindeer would not be complete with about a red heart for a nose, white dots on the top of its head, curved closed luscious lashed eyes topped with some Christmas holly hair!
Simple silky stix Christmas Tree
Blending silky stix colours together is lots of fun for everyone you can use a paintbrush, crepe paper or your finger!
Step one- Using a white silky paint a whole wood slice white. Collect the two green silky stix and use the light green for the tip of a triangle and the darker green for the base.
Step two- once the green triangle is dry, use a black paint pen to transform it into a Christmas tree with wavy lines for the different branch levels.
Step three- The red paint pen dotted along the edge of each branch will make effective looking baubles for your Christmas tree.
Paint a gold tree trunk and voila it’s all done!
Happy dancing penguin wood slice
Everyone is familiar with the movie “Happy Feet” and this quick tutorial will show you how to create your own slice of penguin happiness!
Step one- To start off, paint a basic black penguin silhouette and fill in the centre with white to make the basic penguin complete.
Step two- Add two orange feet onto the bottom of the penguins body, one facing downward and the upwards to give a dancing effect. For the penguins face paint a small orange beak with two semi circular shapes above the beak for a set of happy eyes.
Step three- Put a red and green beanie on the penguins head then “let it snow” with a bunch of white dots surrounding the penguins head, flippers and on the ground.
Christmas countdown sign
Rembember as a child having that intense feeling of awaiting Christmas Eve and the built up excitement of Santa’s arrival? Painting a countdown sign can be an extremely fun way to assist in the anticipation and can also be a great tool to guide the children’s time line in counting down the days until Christmas.
Materials
- Wood slices or wood sign
- Christmas coloured 3mm paint pens (green, red, white and gold)
- White chalk
For this tutorial we revamped a cheap wooden sign, you can use your wood slices to make your own (using one wood slice as the counter, and a few different ones for decorations!).
Step one- Paint some green holly leaves around the top edges with a few stems with holly fruits. In the middle of the Christmas holly paint a red bauble which you can chalk in the numbers to countdown the days until Christmas.
Step two- Use your funky writing skills to scribe the saying “DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS” in green paint pen.
Step three- Add white highlights to the edges of the writing, centre of the holly leaves and fruit.
Step four- Sprinkle a few gold stars around, spray the surface with a clear acrylic spray and then get your chalk ready to start the countdown!
Christmas bauble decorations
Handpainted baubles have been the rage on the internet, and we want them to be the rage in your tree decorations as well. These baubles were painted with the Life of Colour acrylic paint pens using fluid strokes with each layer left to dry before adding the next colour.
They can be a bit tricky to manoeuvre whilst painting so remember to take your time and you may need to assist children to hold the bauble to allow them to paint them easily.
Allow them to dry and then hang them on a stick to give them a coat of acrylic spray to protect the painted image that you have completed.
Oh Christmas tree
These baubles were painted with the Life of Colour acrylic paint pens using fluid strokes with each layer left to dry before adding the next colour.
Materials
- Baubles
- Life of Colour paint pens (3mm green, lime, yellow, red and blue)
- Clear acrylic spray paint
Step one- Complete a set of green strokes in the shape of a triangle using a green paint pen. Add another layer of branches making the triangle shape larger, and then a final layer of branches at the bottom to make the tree shape complete.
Step two- Paint over the top of the green Christmas tree with a lime coloured (or brighter green colour) paint marker.
Step three- Wait for the green tree to dry before adding a yellow Christmas star to the top of the tree, followed by colourful dot baubles to the bottom of each branch.
Step four- When the bauble is dry spray with clear acrylic spray paint.
Special Tips- The baubles can be a bit tricky to manoeuvre whilst painting so remember to take your time and you may need to assist children to hold the bauble to allow them to paint them easily.
Allow them to dry and then hang them on a stick to give them a coat of acrylic spray to protect the painted image that you have completed.
Christmas Koala
Materials
- Baubles
- Life of Colour paint pens( grey, black, white, pink, brown, red and green)
- Clear acrylic spray paint
Step one- Paint a brown branch for your Koala to sit upon with a few smaller branches at the top.
Step two- To paint the Koala, start with a grey circle head with a small body shape. Add two semi circles for the Koalas ears and two paws resting on the branch.
Step three- Fill the ears in with pink and paint two pink rosy cheeks. For the base of the eyes, add two white circles. The Koalas nose is a soft edged black triangle positioned in between the two eyes.
Step four- Add details to your Koalas eyes and a cute smiling mouth.
Step five- Decorate the branches and Koalas head with some festive Holly using the green and red 3mm acrylic paint pens.
Gingerbread Man
Materials
- Baubles
- Life of Colour paint pens( black, white, brown, red and green)
- Clear acrylic spray paint
Instructions
Step one- Using a brown life of colour paint pen, paint a simple gingerbread man shape- you can do a simple stickman shape and then thicken up all of the lines if you have difficulty.
Step two- Dot three buttons onto the chest of the gingerbread man.
Step three- Paint a red scarf and a hat onto the head.
Step four- Add some wavy white lines onto each limb(hands and feet) with two white eyebrows and a smiling face. Dot two black eyes and your gingerbread man is complete!
Christmas Day falls on a Friday in 2020, so let’s make it a Friday worth celebrating! Merry Christmas Season to you all from the Life of Colour team.
