Get your Ornament and Coasters Kit here
The first activity in the Ornaments and Coasters kit is to make a fantastic Holiday wreath using painted wood slices. Children will learn how to paint on wood (to make it easier to understand the drawing process, we used stencils, which you can get separately here).
Then, kids will use their paint pens to fun Xmas masks, one inspired by an adorable koala and the other one inspired by a reindeer.
Activity 1: Christmas wood slice wreath
Decorate an existing wreath or follow our tutorial to make your own Christmas wreath to display your decorative wood slice pieces.
Materials
- Christmassy colours from the Life of Colour 3mm Classic paint pens
- Life of Colour Earth colours paint pens
- Life of Colour Wood slices and string
- Life of Colour stencil pack (not included in your Creative Kids kit)
- Paper plate
- Scissors
- PVA glue
- Christmas decorations
Instructions
Step one-
Cut the centre out of the middle of a paper plate to make a paper ring that will be used for the Christmas wreath.
Choose some Earth colours and Christmassy colours from the Classic colours to use for the backgrounds of the wood slice pieces.
Colour some of the wood slices with a different colourful each and leave a few plain for stencil designs.
Step two-
Trace or draw a reindeer onto the centre of one of your coloured wood slice pieces.
Use a red paint pen to colour the shape of the reindeer. Wait for the paint to dry before completing the next step.
Step three-
Draw a Xmas holly shape close to the reindeer, colour the fruit red and make the leaves green
Colour the in the holly.
Step four-
With an Earth green paint pen to add lines around the outside of the wood slice. These lines will be turned into colourful Christmas lights by adding lots of tiny different coloured lights.
Step five-
Paint a piece of holly onto the middle of one of the coloured wood slices. To draw holly put three small red circles close together and two then add some green spikes branches coming from the circles.
Step six-
Using a white paint pen place a tiny line onto the red holly fruit to make it look like it’s shining.
With a sky blue earth colours paint pen, put some swirling lines for Christmas tinsel then paint some white circles onto the tinsel for Christmas baubles.
Step seven-
Use your Life of Colour stencil to paint different pictures onto more of the wood slices and get creative painting lines and lots of different colours onto others.
Step eight-
Lay the paper ring down and arrange the wood slices around the edge.
Decorate the other half of the wreath with Christmas decorations, or leaves and flowers. Now that you have placed everything where you like it, it’s time to glue your wreath altogether.
Step nine-
Find somewhere festive to hang your Christmas wreath!
Bonus: Decorate a flower wreath with painted wood slices
If you have a flower wreath hanging around the house you can easily turn it into a Christmas wreath by hanging your Christmas wood slices onto it.
You can also make a coordinated set of table decor and coasters for your Christmas dinner.
Step one-
Paint your wood slices with different colours using your paint pens and paint on designs from your Life of colour stencil pack.
Step two-
Weave your dried flowers into the cane wreath and decorate it nicely.
Place some string through the holes that are on the wood slices and tie them onto the flower wreath.
Step three-
If the flowers that you have used are old and don’t have any perfume anymore you can spray them or sprinkle some essential oil scents to make them smell pretty again.
Hang the wreath on the front door or somewhere special to display for everyone to see.
Activity 2: Koala earth patterned Christmas mask
Materials
- Life of Colour Earth Colours
- Life of Colour Classic3mm paint pens
- Life of Colour Black paint pen (comes in Classics pack)
- Compass
- Pencil and rubber
- Poster paper or white cardboard
- String or elastic
- Stapler
- Scissors
Instructions
Step One-
Get your compass with your pencil and mark out a large circle.
Trace over part of the circle with a black marker (as shown in the picture)
Draw in a koala shaped nose into the bottom section of the circle and add furry cheeks and join the lines altogether onto the nose.
Step Two-
Add a pair of sleepy koala eyes onto the top of the nose with some furry eyebrows above each eye.
Draw a Christmas hat onto the head of the koala with a Pom Pom on the end and wavy lines to show where the hat is sitting..
Step Three-
Next we add some big furry ears onto the side of the koalas head.
Step Four-
Paint each part of the koalas Christmas hat with a different colour and leave the Pom Pom and the section closest to the koalas head white.
Step Five-
Paint the eyelids, eyebrows, ears and nose using brown Earth coloured paint pens.
Step six-
To paint the face of the koala use different coloured thick lines to start your earthy pattern.
Pant different designs onto each line and continue the pattern down the face until the koala is completed.
Step seven-
Use a pair of scissors to neatly cut around the edge of the mask and the eye holes.
Cut two pieces of string or one piece of string and staple it onto the face mask and now your mask is ready to wear!
Activity 3: Christmas reindeer face mask
Materials
- Life of Colour Classic 3mm paint pens
- Life of Colour Earth Colours paint pens
- Black cardboard
- Scissors
- Stapler and glue
- String
Instructions
Step One-
To make this reindeer face mask we need to draw all the parts that will be glued or stapled together.
Use a white paint pen to draw a mask shape, two pointy ears, two antlers and and large oval shaped nose.
Step two-
Paint the antlers with the brown earth coloured paint pens in an army type of pattern.
Layer the earth browns onto the reindeer ears and then draw different coloured Christmas designs over the top of the brown.
Step three-
Paint lots of squiggly lines with the Life of Colour paint pens all over the mask to create a Christmas pattern.
Step four-
Paint the nose shape with a red life of colour paint pen and when it is dry add green horizontal and vertical lines.
Step five-
Carefully cut out all of the reindeer pieces and two eye holes out of the mask.
Staple one antlers onto each of the pointy ears.
Attach the ears with staples onto the top of the face mask and staple the nose onto the bottom of the mask.
Step six-
Cut two pieces of string and then tie them onto the face mask. Now say “CHEESE” and get your photo taken with your mask on ready to show the Life of Colour art group!
