Project Five: Christmas Tree Painting

Yes, yes. I know. I disappeared for awhile. You are all thinking what a great site this is and the POOF! Gone. But let me explain... We had quite the round of sickness hit our house. On top of feeling under the weather, my camera on my iPhone stopped working. And since I am not a technical genius, I only know how to load images from my phone to this site. The good news is I am back! And tis' the season so there will be lots of projects!

We put our Christmas decorations up over the Thanksgiving weekend. And we have A LOT of decorations. I had one spot in my dining room really needing a picture of sorts. I pinned last year a hand print Christmas tree picture and decided this would be the perfect project!

I always have art supplies on hand, so I did not purchase anything. The canvas I used is from Hobby Lobby and I believe the price tag was about $7 for a pack of two. 

As  you can see below, the paint I use is just craft acrylic paint. This is what I use for all of my paintings. It costs almost nothing and works just as well as the expensive acrylic paint. I have a tendency to waste paint (or let my kids waste the paint), so this is far more economical.

The canvas was a little worn, so i used a mix of cream and brown to make the canvas appear "old". Most of my Christmas decorations have a vintage look and feel, so this was perfect! It did not take long to put a coat of paint on the canvas.

After the canvas was dry, I used my little guys foot to make the trunk of the tree. As you can see below, it isn't the nice, neat, crisp footprint seen on Pinterest. When working with a 15 month old, you take what you can get. I thought he would love Mommy painting his foot, but he was not happy! It took my husband to help hold him and place the footprint.

I learned a very good lesson during the footprint step of this process. I actually painted my son's foot. Genius, right? Wrong. The paint dried very quickly. For the branches, I pour green paint on a paper plate and had my daughter's dip their hands in the paint. They also practiced making a hand print on the newspaper before going straight for the canvas. As you can see, this worked much better. Having older children also helped!

We tried again using my son's hand for the star on top of the tree. As you can see, it went just as well as the base of the tree. The ornaments are thumb and finger prints. My husband and I helped make a few ornaments. I dated the lower right corner and we were done! The picture hangs in the dining room and was the perfect addition! Very little prep or mess to this project. I highly recommend creating a Christmas Tree paining with your kiddos!