Painted Christmas trees
An easy painting technique to create effective Christmas decorations.

Age Range: 3+
Duration: less than an hour
Location: anywhere
Time Of Day: any time
Season: winter
Category: art & creating
Preparation
Cut your own or buy a number of wooden discs or counters.
For hanging decorations, drill a hole at the top. Thicker counters can be used for games. In this example we are making counters for tic tac toe.
Sand your counters smooth on one side (or both sides if you’re painting both).
Using weatherproof acrylic paints gives a finish suitable for the outdoors – most other paints should be fine for indoor use.
Alternatively you can use this paint technique on card, pebbles or anything round.
Step 1
Paint a big green triangle in the middle of your disc. Use the brush to make the edges fuzzy and bumpy.
Step 2
Paint a black or brown line at the bottom for the trunk, and squares or other shapes for presents.
Leave to dry.
Step 3
Use lines of colour for tinsel & blobs of bright colours for baubles.
Paint or stick a star at the top.
Use metallic pens or glitter & glue to add a sparkle.
Take it further
Use as Christmas decorations or to play festive noughts & crosses.