These decorated tree cards are perfect for Autumn and apple season or can be adapted to a slightly more Christmassy shape as winter draws on! This simple paint and pom poms cardmaking craft was lots of fun for my boys aged 2 and 3.
To make your decorated tree card (apple tree or christmas tree) you will need:
Card cut into tree shapes. You can either do this yourself with a template or draw free hand, or get ready made shapes. Ours were ready made as a part of a vDabble box (see previous post about vDabble here)
Paint – We used red and green
Glue – We used both PVA glue and Pritt Stick.
Decorations for the tree – We used pom poms as baubles and strips of shredded tissue as tinsel. You could use real tinsel, sparkly pipe cleaners, sequins, glitter or anything else!
It’s ideal for younger children as it doesn’t matter where they place the decorations on the tree or how carefully (or not) they put them on, it will still give that decorated tree effect.
Mr R (2) and Mr T (3) really enjoyed all the painting and sticking. Mr T is getting much more precise now, and really concentrates! Mr R has almost covered himself as much as the card! This is a really quick and easy craft. We only spent about half an hour doing it this afternoon, but if I had given them more trees to decorate and a wider selection of decorations it could have kept them busy for ages! To make this into a Christmas card, simply write your message on the back – or you could mount the decorated tree shape onto a traditional folded card.
We love Fireworks night! With Mr T being in hospital recently we weren’t able to take the kids to a display this weekend (although hopefully the coming weekend we can!). Luckily, our next door neighbours had a display in their back garden last night which the boys were able to watch from their window so they haven’t totally missed out. Fireworks are one of the best parts of Autumn for me. Mr Z obviously feels the same, as watching the fireworks from the window he said they were “awesome epic wow” – which is quite a compliment 😀 As well as watching Fireworks, we could have lots of fun with Fireworks crafts
As well as watching Fireworks, sparklers, eating toffee apples, and wrapping up outside in warm hats and gloves; Bonfire and Firework Night crafts have to be an essential part of a British childhood in Autumn! Halloween is fun, but as far as I’m concerned – Fireworks night is the best!
Here are some of our Bonfire and Fireworks craft ideas: 3D Bonfire picture: Very simple – Craft Maize (its this stuff if you’re not sure) for logs for the bonfire then ripped up firey colour tissues, with glitter, stars and sparkle for a bit of extra Bonfire Night magic. This can be done even by quite young toddlers, if you guide them roughly where to stick things and could be made really intricate and cool by an older child. Black Paper and Chalk: An even simpler idea. Black paper for the night sky, and chalk for the splashes of colour zinging and zapping out from the fire works! Chalk shows up very strongly on the black so can be quite effective. Mr R (2) loved scribbling with the chalk, and the good thing is that any shapes and designs could work as fireworks really!
Paint and Glitter: For young children, simply shaking some glitter into their paint will give a more sparkley and firey effect to their painting, helping their Firework paintings to look more effective. Mr Z painted the whole sky dark blue and then added some dashes of glittery paint.
You can also do a chalk silhouette of the roof tops and then add the glitter and paint fireworks in the sky above.
With young children, sometimes it works best just to gather a range of suitable supplies and let them get on with it, rather than a very structured craft (depending on the child – my boys like their artistic freedom!)
So here’s some ideas of materials perfect for Bonfire and Fireworks Night themed crafts and pictures:
Black Paper
Chalk
Paint
Glitter
Glue
Glitter Glue
Coloured Tissues: Reds, Oranges, Browns and Yellows for fire. Any colours for Fireworks!
Maize, or real Twigs from the garden to make a bonfire
Autumn leaves to add an outdoors effect
Silver and gold card
Tin foil or shiny metallic sweet wrappers
Sequins
Silver, gold or coloured stars – sequin stars or star stickers
Tinsell
Coloured streamers
For some other Bonfire and Fireworks ideas and resources Have a look at:
To make your decorated tree card (apple tree or christmas tree) you will need:
It’s ideal for younger children as it doesn’t matter where they place the decorations on the tree or how carefully (or not) they put them on, it will still give that decorated tree effect.
Mr R (2) and Mr T (3) really enjoyed all the painting and sticking. Mr T is getting much more precise now, and really concentrates! Mr R has almost covered himself as much as the card!
This is a really quick and easy craft. We only spent about half an hour doing it this afternoon, but if I had given them more trees to decorate and a wider selection of decorations it could have kept them busy for ages! To make this into a Christmas card, simply write your message on the back – or you could mount the decorated tree shape onto a traditional folded card.
