It is not the fanciest painting you ever did see, but it’s festive, fun and fairly simple to create.

Have you seen those places where you get to drink wine with your girlfriends while creating a fabulous painting? I’ve always wanted to go. Unfortunately, I have not.

I have especially wanted to take my 10 year old son to such a place, minus the wine, of course. I don’t, however, want to spend $50+ for the 2 of us to create the same painting. So, I came up with a painting we can all do. It’s simple enough for the kids. It’s also fun enough to be part of a girls wine drinking paint party.

My goal was to create a painting that was cute and something I’d actually want to display in my home, as well as be cost effective. I also wanted it to be doable for all artist levels.

12 Days of December

December 7th: Easy Christmas Tree Canvas Painting Tutorial

Items You Will Need

• Canvas – I used 11″ x 14″ canvas panels. The canvas panels are slightly cheaper than the wood framed canvas. During a holiday sale, I was able to get a 3 pack at Joann’s for $4.80.
• Paint – I’ve used both tempera and acrylic paints for this project. Both work fine. I prefer acrylic, though. In the following instructional steps I list the colors I used for reference purposes only. Feel free to use whatever colors you have on hand. And, don’t be afraid to mix your own colors if you don’t have quite the variety you would like.
• Paintbrushes – As much as I like painting with the “nice” brushes, I paint a lot with the kids, so I most often use the cost effective 5 pack of Crayola paint brushes. They are usually priced around $5 and will often be on sale for less. That set of brushes works perfectly for this project. I did, however, use a wider brush for the background.
• Palette – You just need something to hold your paint. It can be an actual palette, cardboard, or a paper plate. My favorite is the cardboard from a frozen pizza. It’s silly, but I like it because of the round shape.
• Table Cover or Easel – If you have an easel, that’s fantastic. Use it. Around here, though, we don’t have enough easels for the number of painters. So, I put white butcher paper on our kitchen table and we paint away. Newspaper would work fine, too.

Step 1: Paint the Background

• For the kids I used tempera paints in black, purple, blue, and red. The adults used acrylic paint.
• I also mixed in glitter. This is not a necessary step. I just like glitter.
• The kids used a foam brush to paint the background. Adults used a 1″ paint brush. Again, either one works fine. Use whatever you have.
• The trick to this background is not mixing the colors before applying the paint to the canvas. I squeeze blobs of paint onto the palette. Then brush them onto the canvas, blending them here and there. But, allowing the individual color to show through as well.

Step 2: Outline the Tree

• Using a light green acrylic paint, I painted an outline of the tree. You could draw it in pencil first, if you would like. But, I didn’t.

Step 3: Fill in the Tree

• Using the same light green paint, fill in the entire tree area.
• I used mostly downward strokes, resembling tree branches. No moving my brush horizontally.

Step 4: Adding Snow to the Background

• I mixed together white acrylic paint and pearl it medium from Crayola for the snow. The mixing medium isn’t necessary. I just have it, so I used it.
• Painting circles is super simple. Flip your brush over. The end of your paintbrush is now the brush you are using. Dip the end in white paint and dab onto the canvas for snow. Using different brushes will give you a variety of circle sizes.

Step 5: Adding Detail to the Tree

• Using a variety of paints (Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Light Green, Deep Green, & Phthalo Blue) I created depth to the tree. I used mostly a dry brush technique, but also blended colors right on the canvas.
• Again, I used vertical or sweeping strokes. No horizontal painting.
• The deep green, phthalo blue, and cadmium red were used where I wanted shadows. The cadmium yellow was painted where I wanted a highlight.

Step 6: Outline the Tree

• Using black acrylic paint, I outlined the tree.

Step 7: Painting the Star Glow

• I used lemon yellow acrylic paint and pearl it medium for the glow effect. White paint mixed with a dab of yellow would work as well.
• I used a dry brush technique. Each stroke began in the center and then pulled out.

Step 8: Adding Lights to the Tree

• Using the same technique as the snow, paint the lights using the end of the paintbrush.
• My paint colors were: Deep Magenta, Cadmium Yellow, Phthalo Blue, Cerulean Blue, and Cadmium Red

Step 9: Painting the Star

• Using Cadmium Yellow paint a star at the top of the tree.
• Allow the yellow paint to dry a smidge, then outline the star in black paint.

Step 10: Enjoy your Festive Painting

For a quickie version of the steps, print the jpg below.

Please enjoy this tutorial! However, do not sell or share the images as your own. Please link back to this original post.

All 12 Days of December:

December 1st: Hot Drinks Bar Party Kit • Printable
December 2nd: Warm Up Here Burlap & Canvas • DIY
December 3rd: Photo Booth Backdrop • DIY
December 4th: Snowman Photo Booth Props • Printable
December 5th: Let it Snow Gift Card Holders • Printable
December 6th: Christmas Gift Box • Printable
December 7th: Christmas Tree Canvas Painting • Tutorial {you’re already here}
December 8th: Hot Drink Pouch • Printable
December 9th: Build Your Own Snowman Gift Tags • Printable
December 10th: Let it Snow Gift Tags • Printable
December 11th: Christmas Word Search • Printable
December 12th: Let it Snow • Printable

I would love to see how you used these 12 Days projects. Please share your creation(s) with us here.

The post 12 Days: Christmas Tree Canvas Painting Tutorial appeared first on .

Over the summer, the kids created fun butterfly paintings. I gave them the same step by step instructions, yet all 3 of their paintings are original. I absolutely love that!

Supplies

• Canvas, we used 11″ x 14″ canvas panels
• Paint, acrylic or tempera – red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black
• Paintbrushes and/or sponge
• Pipe cleaner
• Sequins & Glitter Paint
• Misc pieces of cardboard
• Glue Gun

Step 1: Paint Background Blue

Step 2: Add Details to Sky

Farm Girl chose to paint the more typical clouds & sun.
Farm Kid2 went with an abstract look.

To make the rays of the sun, Farm Girl dipped the edge of a cardboard piece in a mix of yellow, orange & red paint then pressed the edge on her painting.

Step 3: Creating Grass

The kids created grass using the same method Farm Girl used for her sun’s rays.

I like mixing a variety of colors together – but, not blending them completely together. The base color was green right from the bottle. But, we also mixed in varying amounts of yellow, blue, red & white.

Step 4: Adding Flowers

Farm Girl glued flower sequins in her grass.

Farm Kid1 & Farm Kid2 painted their flowers.

Step 5: Painting the Butterfly

I cut butterfly shapes from cardboard and the kids painted them. They painted the entire butterfly. But instead, you could paint only one side of the wings, then squish it over onto the other side to make a perfect reverse copy of it.

The kids formed the body & antennae from a pipe cleaner. I used a glue gun to attach the pipe cleaner to the butterfly, then to attach the butterfly to the painted canvas.

Finished Masterpieces

I love that this project was simple, yet had great results.

The post Butterfly Canvas Painting appeared first on .

Love Rocks have taken our community by storm. It’s a wonderful thing.

Last October two girls were hit by a car in front of their home. It’s not my story to tell, so I’m choosing not to say more about it. But, these girls are now helping us spread love & joy because their mom chose to share Love Rocks with us.

This amazing mom has been sharing her journey at a Love Drenched Life. It’s raw emotion about the grief she’s going through & the love she feels.

This post contains affiliate links.

WHAT IS A LOVE ROCK?

It is a rock hand decorated with a heart. The Love Rock is then given to someone, or hidden for somebody to find. It’s simple, yet means a lot. It shows you care. It lets someone know they are loved. It encourages us to think about others. It reminds us that there is good in this world.

MAKING YOUR LOVE ROCK

Our Supplies:
Rocks: we used river rock gathered from our pond & rocks we had previously polished
Fabric & Ribbon for the hearts
Scissors & Paintbrushes
Mod Podge
Sparkle Glaze: not necessary, but I enjoy a little sparkle

Top Right: The kids found it a tad difficult to cut out the hearts, so I did it.
Middle Left: The kids each chose one river rock & one polished rock. Then they glued a heart to each rock.
Middle Right: We put mod podge both on top and bottom of the heart.
Bottom: After the glue dried we brushed on the sparkle glaze.

SPREADING LOVE

In Forest Grove there is a rainbow tree in the girls’ memory. You can drop off your Love Rocks or grab a Love Rock to share.

Left: The day we dropped off our Love Rocks firemen were adding more color to the tree.
Right: My kids putting their Love Rocks in the bucket.

Recently there was a shooting at a high school in Troutdale, so the Love Rocks collected were spread around that community.

FINDING LOVE ROCKS

My kids have found a few Love Rocks in various places. Of course, we are always thrilled. Adults are happy to find them, too. We’ve even received them in goodie bags from the dentist.

LOVE

I love that our community and beyond have embraced the power of these Love Rocks. It feels good to both give & receive love.

The post Love Rocks appeared first on .

Throughout this school year we’ve been celebrating Mexican holidays & doing crafts to go along with them. Recently we celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

I was really hoping we’d be able to finish off our year with a trip to Mexico. I’d love to see Chichen Itza & other Mayan ruins. But, that didn’t happen. Bummer.

But, we did create some fun crafts.

Double Headed Serpent Mosaic

Years ago we went on a cruise through the Mexican Riviera. On the ship was a version of the Double Headed Serpent. So when I saw the mosaic craft at That Artist Woman, I knew it was one we were going to do.

I cut the serpent shapes out of stiff cardboard.

The kids used tempera paint on the entire serpent. This doubled as “grout” on their mosaic.

I must admit the other thing that drew me to this craft was that it required egg shells. I’m always on the lookout for ways to use eggs. I had recently colored eggs to place in the background of a few photos of our new chicks. This was a perfect way to use up those shells.

The kids used watered down clear Elmer’s glue to adhere the colored egg shells.

Farm Girl & Farm Kid1 chose to use buttons as their eyes. Farm Kid2 cut out circles from index paper.

The mouth & teeth were cut from white index paper.

Mosaic Masterpieces

Other Crafts Inspired by Mexico:

Papel Picaco

I checked out a book from the library to look at for our papel picado craft.

We used tissue paper and scissors to create designs from the book.

We strung them all together on string & hung them in our house.

Sombrero

I saw a photo on Flickr and loved the craft. So, we put together our own version.

I created a hat template out of index paper. Then, the kids traced the template onto old file folders & cut them out.

I got out a pile of crafting goodies for the kids to use as they wanted. Farm Kid1 decided to use the shavings of a colored pencil for decoration, which I thought was an original idea.

Then they cut out an oval & drew on a nose & mouth. I love that the eyes are covered.

Fun Crafts = Fun Times

The post Double Headed Serpent Mosaic appeared first on .

Throughout the year we learned a little bit about a few different Native American tribes. When we were studying the Sioux of the Great Plains the boys made teepees out of paper bags.

This project was completed in one sitting & made a great visual when learning about the Sioux. We learned that the teepees were positioned so the door flaps opened to the east, the direction of the rising sun. We learned that the designs painted or embroidered on the outside represented something significant about the family living in the teepee. They had fires & cooked in their teepees. This, of course, created smoke. The hole & flaps at the top of the teepee were there to let the smoke escape.

This post contains affiliate links.

I used the tipi project from this Indians of the Great Plains stencil book as a guide for our teepees.

It seems so simple, which really it was. But, it still took a little trial & error to get the template just right for the boys to trace. It’s basically a half circle with wings at the top to create smoke flaps.

The boys cut open a paper grocery bag & traced around my template onto the bag. Then they used oil pastels to decorate their teepee. Both boys chose to use one stencil from the book, as well as add a few other design elements

The boys used tape to fasten the paper bag into a cone shape. We found we needed to add tape to both the inside & outside of the teepee to keep it together. Then they taped 6 skewers on the inside to act as the long poles holding up the teepee.

Left: They folded out the smoke flaps.
Right: And, they folded out the door flaps.
They also added toothpicks to act as pins holding the teepee together.

Farm Kid1 chose to add long poles (aka skewers) to the back of his teepee through the smoke flaps. Farm Kid2 chose not to add these poles.

Farm Kid1’s teepee

Farm Kid2’s teepee. The symbols on his smoke flap represent 3 days & 3 nights.

This was definitely a fun project. I had fun seeing what designs the boys came up with. They turned out so well I currently have them displayed on our mantel.

The post Paper Bag Teepee appeared first on .

With letterboxing in our future, I wanted the kids to create their own stamps.

This post contains affiliate links.

There are only 2 things needed to carve a stamp: a carving tool & the material to carve. Forever ago I had to buy the carving tool for a college art class. I’ve never used it since, but for some crazy reason I still have the tool. I ordered the carving block from Amazon.

TRANSFERRING THE DESIGN

We were studying Japan at the time, so I chose to carve Japanese symbols for my sample stamps.

I printed symbols from the internet. Then, with the printed side facing a window, I traced the backside of the print with thick pencil lines.

I cut a piece of the carving block slightly larger than the symbol. Then placed the cut block up to a window. On top of the block I placed the paper, printed side facing me. Then, I traced the symbol with a pencil. The pencil lead on the other side of the paper transferred to the carving block where I traced.

The finished stamp needs to be a reverse of what you want the actual inked print to be. Keep this in mind when determining which side of the paper gets transferred onto the carving block.

The kids skipped this step & drew their designs right on the the carving block.

CARVING THE STAMP

Grab your carving tool & start getting rid of the areas you don’t want in your printed design. For me, this was everything outside of the pencil line.

My carving tool has a couple different sized tips. On my first stamp I used the broader tip first. I later realized it was easier to use this tip last.

Bottom Left: The smaller tip. I used this to carve the details. It seemed easier to carve the details first, then get rid of all the extra stuff with the broad tip.
Middle Right: The larger tip.
Bottom Right: My first stamp almost complete.

I prefer a polished look, so I was hoping to leave my stamp in its square shape. I quickly realized that just wasn’t going to work. All the extra stuff kept wanting to print even though I carved it away. So, I cut off the excess part of the block.

The stamp also printed much better once I mounted it to a small piece of foam core.

KIDS CAN DO IT, TOO

Top Left: I gave the kids a small piece to practice on first.
Right: Then they drew their design on the carving block & got to carving.
Bottom Left: We all jabbed ourselves with the carving tips. They are sharp. It’s a no brainer to realize you shouldn’t carve toward your fingers. But, somehow we all did it.

Left: Farm Girl’s finished star stamp. She chose to leave many of the lines outside the star.
Right: Farm Kid1 chose to make a LEGO minifig head dreaming about lego bricks.

Left: It took a few tries to get rid of most of the extra lines on the outside of his design. He’d stamp, then carve a little, then cut off a bit, then stamp again, then carve more.
Right: Eventually, he decided he carved enough & had his finished product.

This was fun not only for the kids, but also for me. I know we all want to carve more stamps. And, we will – hopefully, sooner than later.

The post Carving Our Own Stamps appeared first on .

To go along with our Native American studies the kids made these awesome symbols out of oil pastel. The Plains Indians used both naturalistic & geometric designs in their art. We made both.

This post contains affiliate links.

I picked this book up at a home school group book swap. It’s a Good Year Book titled Indians of the Great Plains & comes with stencils. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the book. It describes much about the life of Plains Indians, as well as tell a few legends. Each stencil has information about why that design was important. There are also a number of great projects in the back of the book. We made the teepee & parfleche bag.

When I saw an Indian symbols craft at Art Projects for Kids I knew it would be a perfect way to use the stencils.

Using a paper bag as their canvas, they traced a stencil with pencil.

Then, they went over their pencil lines with black oil pastel.

Next, they colored inside the black line.

And finally, they made a border around the outside of the black line with white oil pastel.

Native American men typically painted naturalistic images on their belongings, such as shields & teepees.

Women used porcupine quills or beads to create geometric designs.

Left: Naturalistic Designs: Elk, Buffalo & Horse
Right: Geometric Designs: Turtle, Spider & Dragonfly

I loved this project. The kids did a great job!

The post Native American Symbol Craft appeared first on .

We’ve gone geocaching many times & decided it was time to try letterboxing.

The first thing we each needed for our letterboxing adventures were journals. Of course, there’s always the option of buying a journal. But I like the cost of making our own much better, so that’s what we did.

We used the instructions at Layers of Learning.

THE COVER

I tore paper bags into a rectangle shape. Then the kids crumpled the rectangle.

Next they rubbed crayons on the crumpled paper.

When they were done coloring their cover, I wet them just a bit & put them in the oven to melt the crayon wax. Honestly, melting the was didn’t work as well as I was hoping. Probably just doing the rubbing would have been good enough.

After the covers cooled we used stamps & oil pastels to decorate them.

For the most part, the kids went for an abstract look.

I opted for a minimalist approach.

THE PAGES

I used regular copy paper, folding 4 sheets in half & sewing a line on the crease. I made four sets of these for each journal.

Then I stacked the four paper sets together &, using a hammer, nailed a hole through the stacked paper. Each place I needed a hole for sewing the cover & paper together I used the hammer/nail technique. This section is described much better at Layers of Learning.

SEWING THE COVER & PAGES TOGETHER

Next, I played around with where exactly I wanted to place the paper on the cover. Once I figured that out I placed the paper on the cover. Then, came the hard part.

Why this was so difficult, I don’t know. It seems so simple. But, I had a heck of a time with it.

I liked the look of the binding on the example at Layers of Learning, so I wanted to replicate it.

I used embroidery thread and a needle to sew the cover & paper together. The outside turned out the way I wanted, but the first & last pages don’t look too tidy. The middle pages look ok, though.

Our completed journals.

I had originally thought I would sew buttons on the front cover to help hold the cover closed. But, after a couple days the journals quit trying to open on their own. So, I didn’t mess with it.

We’ve gone letterboxing a couple times & so far these journals are working out great.

The post Making Letterbox Journals appeared first on .

Another Native American craft the kids made were wampum belts. There are fabulous instructions at There’s a Dragon in my Art Room. We didn’t stray too far, if at all, from her directions.

This post contains affiliate links.

I asked the boys to make 3 30 x 5 rectangles on graph paper. Then, fill each rectangle in with a design possibility for their wampum belt. Each square represented one bead.

Authentic wampum belts were made with shells, but we used pony beads instead.

Left:  I cut a 3″ x 11.5″ loom out of stiff cardboard. This photo is the back of the loom once we wrapped it with string. Both ends are taped to the loom.
Top Right: This plastic kids needle barely fit through the beads, but it did fit.
Bottom Right: We used a stiffer twine for threading the beads. I’m not sure I would recommend it, but it worked.

They turned out great!

I loved this activity because it was something out of the ordinary for us. We don’t often use beads in our artwork. Plus, it was a fun hands-on Native American learning experience.

The post Wampum Belt Weaving appeared first on .

Parfleche were bags used by Native Americans living in the Plains to carry dried meat &/or personal belongings, such as clothes. The kids each made a parfleche bag out of a grocery sack.

This post contains affiliate links.

We used the parfleche project in this Indians of the Great Plains stencil book as a guide to making the bags.

Our parfleche bags were made from paper grocery bags, but the Native Americans made theirs from rawhide. The basic shape is a rectangle with rounded corners.

Most often the parfleche bags made by Native Americans were decorated with geometric designs, but I told my kids to decorate their bags however they wanted.

Top: After the kids decorated their bags with oil pastel we began folding them. The first fold was meeting the top & bottom edges in the middle.
Bottom Left: Then the left & right edges were folded to meet in the middle.
Bottom Right: And finally, they used a hole punch & string to tie their bags together.

Farm Girl decorated a bag & I tied it.

I had plans to have the kids carry something useful in their bags, but we haven’t gotten to that yet. Maybe we can figure out a use for them over the summer.

I can’t help but think about the bags we use in our house. We have so many bags it’s ridiculous. The Native Americans put so much effort & pride into their handmade bags. And, I’m fed up that the area we use for bags is completely overflowing with store bought hum drum bags & I’ve been thinking about getting rid of a bunch of them. Times have certainly changed.

The post Native American Parfleche Bag Craft appeared first on .