Christmas Wreath and Tree Art!

The Christmas season is absolutely, positively, my favorite time of the year.  The smells, the lights, the songs...I relish sitting back and drinking it all in like a cup of hot cocoa.  As part of our Christmas celebration, we do an advent countdown with one special something for each day.  One of our activities this week was a simple art project that I thought was too cute not to share! 

For this project, gather up some paint (in festive colors if you like), a couple of brushes, some hands and feet, and a wet rag!  For the wreath, I painted our two year old's tiny little hand and made a circle of hand prints.  Then she dipped her finger in red paint for the holly berry decor (I added the bow to make it a little less lopsided).  For the tree, we used this idea on pinterest (http://craftrookie.blogspot.com/2011/08/christmas-in-august.html).  I painted our eight month old's chubby feet and then pressed them on the paper; then dipped his finger in red paint for the ornaments.  Viola!  Festive holiday keepsake cuteness!

Enjoy your holiday season!
p.s.  These frames are super cuteness from target that are made especially to display your child's art.  They are hinged and open up easily to change out the art and have a pocket insert on the inside to hold past projects--greatness!

Egg carton painting

For this project you will need: washable paint, cut apart egg cartons, glitter and paper.

Use the egg carton to cover the paper with green spots.

 

 Choose several other colors and paint separate pieces of paper. 

 Let your paper dry and then cut the shapes out that you want to use.  Since it is Christmas, we cut it into a tree, ornaments and a star.

 Glue the "ornaments" to the tree.

 And then, shake some glitter over the ornaments to make them shiny!

 Ta-da!  We are using our's as a tree topper.  It's beautiful!

Fluffy Feathered Turkeys

We made a "beautiful" paper bag turkey with foamy textured feathers.  This was a multi-day project for us because we had to wait for the feathers to dry.  

To begin you will need: shaving cream, acrylic paint in a variety of colors, a straw or stick for stirring, paper cut into the shape you want, brown paper bag, scrap paper, googly eyes and a very eager artist!

 

Start by putting a big glob of shaving cream in a pan. 

 

Then let your little artist begin squeezing in paint drops as they see fit. 

 

Next you need to swirl the paint into the shaving cream mixing the colors together.  

 

Push your paper down into the shaving cream.  

 

Set aside to dry.  (They dry with a puffy texture)

 

Next you will create the turkey's body.  I decided since our feathers were gigantic, we would do a stuffed paper bag turkey body.  Olive got to coloring the turkey's body, and of course, it has a rainbow body.  

 

 This was the best part for Olive, scrunching the paper!  After you have it good and smashed, put it in the bag and staple the opening together. 

 Put glue on the back of the bag and smoosh the feathers onto the bag.  You can take a juice break during this step if you want to! 

 

We sat an empty coffee container on the turkey to hold the feathers in place while they dried. 

 

  And wah-la!  Our beautiful turkey! Perfect for the Thanksgiving buffet!

Q-tip Painting

My little ones really enjoy painting, so when I saw this simple idea on Pinterest I thought I should try it out!

Supplies needed:

Q-tips

paper {I used card stock}

washable paints

First, I drew out a simple tree, a circle for the top  & a rectangle for the trunk.

 Add a few colors of paint to a plate, I went with Fall colors since we were making Fall trees.

 Then, allow your little artist to paint away.

 my littlest one had a different technique, which I just love.

 {the masterpieces}



I absolutely love how both of the pieces turned out!

Painting With Leaves

We had so much fun with the whole process of leaf painting!  The first step is to go on a hunt to find all of the perfect leaves you can! We also picked up "snowballs", acorns and sticks. 

Next you will need to sort all of your leaves and figure out which ones will be the best for painting.  (Snazzy collection bucket is totally optional! :)  Olive is quite the little collector and we look daily for acorns, so we needed a snazzy recycled coffee creamer container)

You will also need washable paint in the colors of your choice!  And because Olive is obsessed with purple, this was our first choice. 

Dip your leaves in paint and start working! 

 

  Some of them she scooted around and others, she just poked.  I was amazed that she figured out all different ways to use the leaves. 

The finished product!  Isn't it stunning?  She is very proud. This semi-control freak Mommy really wishes it was in fall colors, but she loves it and so I am fine with that.