christmas tree canvas art

for one of our holiday-themed activities, penny and i created a christmas tree using washable paint on canvas.

penny loves to paint (mostly to feel the squishy paint between her fingers). i hid her paint set because she would ask every day for me to open them. i felt bad about hiding them but it can be a hassle setting everything up for her to only have her paint for a few minutes and then wander off with paint all over her body.

when i do come up with projects, i mostly do them after dinner so when we are finished she can go right into the bath tub. it also helps if someone else is around like dennis or my mil.

i came up with the christmas tree art myself. i have leftover contact paper from when i made a faux marble countertop for penny’s play kitchen so i figured i could use that to create a christmas tree template.

first, i unrolled the contact paper over the canvas to see how much i would need. after cutting the paper, i placed it over the canvas so i could draw an outline of a christmas tree. i also used a sharpie.

then, i carefully cut out the tree (save it for later!) and then peeled off the adhesive backing from the “scrap paper” (or the white space of the tree). i lined up the contact paper with the canvas. i pressed the paper down, smoothed it out, and wrapped the edges around the canvas.

penny had fun smearing green paint all over the canvas. it didn’t matter that it got on the contact paper because the paint didn’t get underneath it. while my mil gave penny a bath, i carefully peeled off the contact paper and viola – an evergreen tree! i let it dry overnight and placed it on the windowsill out of penny’s reach.

for the next part of the project, i peeled off the adhesive backing from the tree cutout that i had saved and placed it right over the tree. using sky blue paint, penny painted the background. again, the contact paper helped preserve the picture. thankfully dennis was around to help me with this part.

then i had penny glue on colorful poms to represent christmas lights. initially i had white glue on a plate and gave penny a paintbrush to randomly paint glue on the tree. this didn’t work because penny was just dabbing glue on and the poms wouldn’t stick. i ended up helping her paint glue on and place the poms on the tree. (i have poms with adhesive backings that would’ve been perfect but i let penny play with them months ago so they’re not sticky anymore. if you can find poms like those, that would be ideal. i had gotten them from target around easter so the downside was that they’re pastel-colored – not exactly christmas light-material.)

for the final touch, i cut out the gold glitter star and glued that on.

using contact paper on canvas inspired me to do more art projects with penny using these two materials. dennis and i decided on a woodland theme for our baby boy’s nursery and sprinkle so i’m going to create artwork depicting woodland creatures. i can have penny help by having her paint on the body of the animals (with the help of cutouts) and i can do the finer details like the facial features.

the goal is to have four animal canvases and maybe i’ll make some others with just evergreen trees. i really liked how the christmas tree looked before having all the decorations put on it – it was simple and had more of a rustic feel.the sprinkle is about two months away and i know it’ll approach quickly so i hope to get a start on these next art projects soon!

for a more low-key art activity, penny painted white snow onto blue paper to create a landscape. then she placed holiday-themed stickers on the paper. in hindsight i would’ve used dark blue paper for the white paint to show up more.

we’ve had 3 snow days so far but have yet to venture out in it. one of the reasons is because all of penny’s snow gear is wrapped up under the tree, but it’s also too cold! i’m sure there will be more snow once christmas is over so we will get to play outdoors. we also live near an elementary school and our backyard faces the hilly field so we will have to buy a sled soon.

i had to take yuri out for a walk while penny napped

penny had fun playing with fake snow at her toddler class last week. it’s a material called “insta-snow” that the instructor purchased on amazon. it’s cold (though not as ice cold as real snow) and fluffy. it was amazing to see it transform into snow once water was poured onto it.

snowman collage using glue and cutouts

first time playing with shaving cream!

i had penny touch snow for the first time when she was about 8 months old and she hated it – too cold! it’ll be interesting to see her reaction this winter.

23 weeks!