How to Make a Christmas Tree Collage

Are you looking for a fun art project to try over winter break with your kids?  Here is one that is sure to be festive, fun and creative!

What you will need:

• watercolor paints
• pencil
• watercolor paper
• paint brush
• cup of water
• markers.  For my own art, I prefer Micron markers, Sakura Koi markers, and Molotow White markers.
• stickers of your choice
• glue
• magazines
• assorted paper scraps of your choice

1.  Begin by drawing a Christmas tree shape on a piece of watercolor paper.

2.  Start by painting in the sections of the tree with various shades of green.  Get your brush nice and wet while painting.

3.  While the paint is still wet, I like to dab in other colors that are similar (yellows, turqouises, different shades of green).  The colors blend and spread in a way that is unique to watercolors.

4.  When you are finished painting the tree, let it dry for several hours.

5.  While it is drying, take some time to gather the items that you will use to decorate the tree.  I have a stash of paper scraps that I keep handy for projects like these.  Use scrapbook paper, previously painted pages, magazine cut outs or stickers.  I happened to have an astronomy magazine which had some really beautiful celestial images as well as some children’s magazines that had that moon image.

I also belong to a really fun Stickers of the Month club called Pipsticks, where I get a curated package of super cool stickers sent to me every month (kind of like those makeup bag of the month kit or Barkbox.)   If you use this link, I get a referral credit!

6.  When your tree is thoroughly dry, you can start decorating!  Cut out wavy line shapes for garland or use markers to draw them on.  Stick on star stickers, magazine cut outs or draw stars in the sky. Choose something festive to add to the top of your tree.

I outlined the tree sections with black Micron markers and added additional doodling to the bottom of the tree.

7.  Cut out ornament shapes from your painted papers, scrapbook paper scraps and magazine pages.  Put stickers on the tree for ornaments.  Place a bird or animal sticker to be sitting on the tree.  Outline any stickers that need defining.  After I started decorating, for some reason I began using green markers to color on top of the actual tree.  I didn’t like it, but it was too late so I had to keep going.  If I did this again, I would just leave it with the watercolor paints only.

8.  Finally, in my opinion, white accents make everything better!  I used my white paint marker to add dots on to the garland and tree.

Here is the finished image! When you are done, you can frame it and hang it as a Christmas decoration or you can photocopy it and use it as a Christmas card.

What do you think of this idea?  Do you like collage as much as I do?