Golden Christmas

Made by a student of grade 6

You need:

1. white drawing sheet 20 by 20 cm


2. ruler


3. pencil


4. silver and gold marker


5. black construction paper


6. glue

Children divide their sheet with ruler and pencil in 16 squares from 5 by 5 cm. In each square they draw a Christmas figure: tree, candy, snowman, skates, mitten, sock, candle etc. These figures have to be coloured , just like a checkerboard, with gold and silver marker.  Paste the drawing on a black sheet.

Gingerbread man printing lesson

 

You need:

1. two pieces of linoleum 10 x 10 cm


2. lino knife


3. block printing ink


4. flat piece of plexiglass


5. linoleum roller


6. white sheets


7. lino press


8. scissors, glue


9. coloured paper

Draw a gingerbread cookie on both pieces of linoleum. Cut away the outlines of the first linoleum, and the background of the second one. Print in one or two (Christmas) colours and paste on coloured paper.

Winter scenes

You need:

1. styrofoam



2. pencil



3. block printing ink



4. paint roller



5. flat piece of plexiglass



6. coloured paper

Explain the principle of printing. Why is it that people started to print texts and pictures?



Draw a winter scene with a pencil on the styrofoam. Squeeze out “toothpaste” amount of ink on plexiglass. Roll ink out. The ink is ready when lines appear. Ink should look wet.

Put the styrofoam on a newspaper. Roll one colour ink onto the foam, working quickly to cover all areas. Lay a sheet on top of foam and press with a flat hand. Take away the sheet and your print is ready. Let dry and cut it with about 1 cm around. Paste one or more prints on a white sheet. Decorate the frame with fingerprints.

Made by students of grade 2

Artist Trading Cards

Some weeks before Christmas, I was contacted by Amy Baldwin, art teacher at St. Pauls Lutheran School in Millington (Michigan). She wrote me she was a fan of my weblog. We emailed for a while, wondering if we could do a little project together. I read about exchanging ATC's on many art blogs, so I proposed to let our students make those little cards for eachother. This seemed to her very nice, so we got started!

Amy's students made ATC's for my students, my Dutch students did the same for hers.
A couple of days before Christmas I sent an envelope filled with 50 ATC's of my 23 students to Millington.

Yesterday we received the big envelope, full of ATC's! How exciting for my students to get those beautiful cards from the other side of the world! They admired the cards and were surprised about the Dutch words on some of them. Thank you very much Amy and thank you all, St. Paul's students!

Christmas stamp

You need:

1. brown paper bag
2. markers
3. correction fluid

Draw a little Christmas scene on a piece of a paper bag. Colour it with markers. Colour the white pieces with correction fluid. Outline everything with a fine black marker. Draw serrated edges with black marker or cut the stamp with pinking shears.

Angelic students

You need:

1. paper doily
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. silver thread
4. little silver clothespins
5. glitter
6. glue
7. scissors
8. black white photograph of the face
9. cotton wool balls

Give all students a sheet of black construction paper and a doily. Fold the doily in eight parts. Cut two wings, both 1/8 part of the doilie.
Paste a photograph of your face on the black sheet. Take half of the doily and form a dress. Paste it spatial. Paste the wings behind the dress on shoulder hight.
Cut two pieces of the silver thread, the legs, and paste them under the folds of the dress. Paste two clothespins, the feet. Cut arms from a scrap of white paper. Paste pieces of cotton wool on the hair. Decorate with glitter.

Made by students of 11-12 years old

Thanks to Anneriek Adema, Dokkum

Colourful Christmas trees

You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. ruler
9. pencil
10. gold or silver marker
11. white correction marker
12. glitter

Paint a background for the Christmas trees with water paint. Use different colours and let them blend into each other. Use plenty of water for nice bright colours.

Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a sheet of drawing paper and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on this wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. Then make it wet again with a brush with water. Fill the sheet with these tissue paper parts and leave it to dry. Remove the pieces of tissue paper from the sheet when it is completely dry. The sheet will look like this:

Cut long triangles from the sheet that was coloured with tissue paper. You may use the schedule above (based on A4 size sheet of 21 by 29 cm - half cm will remain on both sides then). You can cut a piece from the bottom of the triangles if you want trees of various heights.

Paste these three trees with overlap on the water paint background. Don't paste the trees all at the same height, so you get depth. Cut some smaller triangles from the left overs if you want more trees.

Outline the trees with silver or gold marker. Draw a simple branch structure. Draw the strains with brown pencil or use the metallic pins. Draw snowflakes around and on the trees with a white (correction) marker or use chips from the punch. rond en op de bomen. Paste the artwork on a coloured background. Sprinkle some glitter on the forest floor.

All artwork is made by students of 11-12 years old

Wooden Christmas tree

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. plywood 14 by 18 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. jigsaw
5. nails
6. hammer
7. tempera paint
8. brush
9. block of wood 6 by 3 by 1 cm
10. 2 blocks of wood 5 bij 2 bij 1 cm
11. small Christmas decorations
12. silver cardboard
13. glue

Draw on the narrow side of the plywood a dot on 9 cm. Draw two lines from the corners below at this dot so you get a triangle. Saw this triangle. Paint it green with tempera paint. Spike at different spots on the front and back of the tree little nails for the Christmas decorations.

Create a standard of three blocks of wood by pasting the smaller blocks with a half cm space between them on the largest block. Paint the standard. Hang the balls and garlands on the nails. Cut a double peak out of silv and paste the two pieces together. Paste the peak on the tree.
Decorate the tree with little clocks, balls, socks, garlands etc.

Christmas tree in strips

Made by a student of 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. tempera paint
4. brush
5. advertising leaflet with Christmas decorations or aluminum foil or scrapbooking paper
6. glue
7. glitter stars
8. small piece of brown paper

Paint a white sheet with a broad brush and undiluted green tempera paint. Apply patches or streaks of different colours, to make the green sheet more vivid. Let the sheet dry.

Tear a trunk out of brown paper. Tear strips of the painted sheet that are about the same width. Place the paper strips on a black sheet in the form of a Christmas tree; the strips have to become slightly shorter. Put the trunk below the bottom strip and paste it. Paste the green strips, so that the trunk disappears partly under the lower strip.

Cut balls and a peak out of aluminium foil or advertising leaflets. You can also use scrapbooking paper. Paste balls and peak on the tree. Cut squares and rectangles (presents!) of coloured paper and paste them under the tree. Paste glitter stars around the tree.

Christmas angel

You need:

1. pattern angel (download picture)
2. cardboard in pink, white and another colour
3. carbon paper
4. two wobbly eyes
5. four split pins
6. wool
7. red marker
8. glitter
9. glue
10. scissors

Pattern angel: click, enlarge and print

Use carbon paper to draw head, hands and feet on pink cardboard; draw the wings on white cardboard and the dress and sleeves on another colour. Arms should be drawn twice, the second one in mirror image. Cut all these parts. Copy the pattern of the bag of the dress on coloured paper and cut it. Paste this bag on the dress.

Paste the arms under the sleeves, about a half cm. Prick holes in the dress and the sleeves and fix the sleeves with split pens on the dress. Paste the wings on the back of the dress; be sure you don't paste the sleeves. Paste the head on the dress. Paste the eyes and draw a nose and a mouth on the head.

Cut two pieces of wire of about 7 cm. Prick two holes in the bottom of the dress and add split pens. Fix the wire legs on the split pens. Paste the feet on these legs.

Cut some short wire for the hair and paste them. Take a longer wire for that can serve as a hook. Decorate dress and wings with glitter and stars.

Christmas gift paper bag

You need:

1. brown paper bag
2. markers
3. scissors
4. ruler
5. glue
6. pattern gift bag
7. piece of rope of 25 cm
8. punch

Pattern: click and print.

Print the pattern. Let students copy the pattern on a paper bag. Cut it.
Make a Christmas drawing on one or both sides of the bag and colour it with markers. The snow in the example is made with correction fluid. Or make a drawing on a white sheet and paste this one on the bag.
Fold the lines. Paste the bag, starting with the side and finishing with the bottom.
Use a punch to make holes in the bag. Pull a rope through the holes to get two rods and tie it.

Dutch December skyline

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. chalk pastel
3. coloured pencils
4. white sheet A4 size for stencil

Draw a skyline with roofs of Dutch canal houses on the white sheet. Cut it. Choose a colour to stencil with. Rub chalk on the stencil. Use a tissue or your finger to rub the chalk off the stencil on the black sheet, to create the soft looking skyline.
Turn the stencil and take another colour to repeat this process. Students may also exchange the roof with your neighbour, to get different skylines.
Draw a moon with chalk pastel. Draw windows in the houses and colour them with a yellow and/or white pencil.

Snowglobes

You need:

1. tempera paint
2. light blue and white drawing paper
3. ribbed cardboard
4. black fine marker
5. brushes
6. glitter
7. glue

A snow globe is a glass sphere containing a small scene. If you shake the globe, it will snow in it. In this lesson the snow globe will be drawn.
Give the children a sheet of light blue drawing paper. Let them draw a circle by outlining a saucer. In this circle they have to draw a winter (or Christmas) scene. After this it has to be coloured with undiluted tempera paint. When the paint is dry, outline the drawing with a fine black marker.

Cut the circle out and lay it on a white sheet of paper. Outline the circle then cut the white circle with one centimeter extra all around from the paper. Paste the drawing on the white circle. Cut a standard out of ribbed cardboard and paste both parts on another sheet of coloured paper of your choice. Sprinkle a little glitter in small dots of glue in and around the drawing.

Made by students of 10-11 years old

Winter scene

Made by Veerle, 10 years old

You need:

1. black paper A4 size
2. chalk pastels
3. hairspray
4. scissors
5. glitter
6. glue

Students draw a winter forest with snowy pine trees on a black background. The trees on the foreground must be lighter than those on the background.

When ready, put a flower pot on the drawing and draw a circle. Cut this circle. Fix your artwork with hairspray and let it dry for a few seconds. Then lay the circle face down on the table. Colour along the outer edge of the back of the circle a circle of about one centimeter. Put the circle in the middle of a new sheet of black paper. Smudge the chalk with your fingers on the new sheet, taking care the work won't move. Finally turn the circle and paste it in the black circle of your latest sheet. Sprinkle a little glitter in small dots of glue.

Merry Christmas window

You need:

1. pattern (click on the picture of it)
2. carbon paper
3. cutter and cutting mat
4. green cardboard
5. tissue paper

Pattern (click and enlarge)

Print the pattern and enlarge if you wish till A4 size. Copy the pattern with carbon paper on the cardboard and cut out the grey parts carefully. Be sure the letters will be stuck to the window. Paste tissue paper on the back.
You might prefer to let children draw their own letters. If you let them, give them the exact sizes of the window and tell them to be sure the letters have to be stuck to the window on at least every edge. This can be done with pencil and paper, but also on computer (Wordart).

Santa with Christmas wish

You need:

1. pattern
2. cardboard in dark red, red, pink, black and white
3. carbon paper
4. wobbly eyes
5. cottonpads
6. 2 split pins
7. piece of raffia
8. black marker

Pattern: click to download

Print the pattern. Draw the body and arms using carbon paper de on the red cardboard. Cut these bodyparts. Copy the hat on dark red cardboard and cut it out. Do the same with hands and face on pink cardboard. Cut the boots out of black cardboard. Cut the white parts. Paste the hands under the sleeves. Paste the sleeve edges on top. Paste the face and the hat on the body and paste the edge of the hat. Outline the edge of the hat with black marker. Paste the boots on the body, and the white belt too. Prick holes in the triangles and fix the arms with split pins on the body. Paste wobbly eyes on the face. Cut a beard and moustache from a cottonpad and paste these in the face.
Cut a rectangle from black construction paper and write a Christmas wish on it. Paste two pieces of raffia on this board and paste the raffia on the hands.

Tealight holder with glass paint

Made by students from 11 years old

You need:

1. used jar or small drinking glass
2. glass paint
3. outline paste in gold
4. brushes
5. turpentine

Wash your jar in hot, soapy water and remove any labels. Dry the jar completely. Cover your work surface with newspapers and have whatever cleaning solution you'll need for your brushes already set up. If you're going to do an outline, test the outline paste before you start, to learn how much pressure you need to apply to get it to come out evenly from the tube. If you make a mistake with either the outline paste or the paints, it's easy to correct by wiping it off with a paper towel before it dries.

Paint your outline first. If you're working from an existing pattern, you can tape the paper pattern on the inside of the jar and follow it from the outside. Or, you can work freehand. Let the outline dry according to directions, then paint with transparent glass paints. Hold the jar up to the light periodically to see how it looks. It'll look different with the light coming through it.

Allow your design to dry thoroughly (this usually takes about two days). To turn your glass jar into a lantern, put a layer of sand on the bottom and add a tea light.

Polish folkart Christmas tree

You need:

1. white, red and green sheet A4 size
2. scissors
3. glue

Put the red and white sheet together and fold them. Draw half a Christmas tree against the fold and cut it out. Take the white tree and fold it again. Cut some of the edges and cut patterns from the fold towards the edges (just like snowflakes). Glue the white tree on the red one and glue the complete tree on a green sheet.

Christmas trees collage

By Silke, 10 years old

I found this idea on Artsonia a collage of Christmas trees coloured with different materials on music paper.
You need:

1. white drawing paper A4 size
2. different colouring materials, like crayons, oilpastel, watercolour paint, tempera, colour pencils, markers, aquarelle pencils etc.
3. music paper
4. chalk pastel
5. green paper for background
6. scissors
7. glue
8. black marker

Divide different colour materials in your classroom. One place with paint (water paint and tempera paint), one place with crayons and oil pastel, one place with pencils and markers.
Children draw three overlapping triangles on a white sheet, the Christmas trees. These trees have to be coloured with different materials and patterns. The only colour they may use is green, in all its nuances. To colour, children have to take place at the table where the material of their choice is.
When finished, the trees and patterns have to be outlined with a black marker. The trees (with the black outline) must be cut out.
Then kids have to tear pieces of music paper and paste them on a new white sheet. Colour the background with light blue chalk pastel. Do not colour the music paper, just rub the edges with the chalk pastel. Paste the trees on the blue sheet and paste this work on a green background.

This work can also be done as a group work. All trees (or groups of trees) have to be glued then on a large background of music paper.

By children of 10-11 years old

Christmas Angels

By Felix, grade 5

You need:

1. black construction paper A4 size
2. pencils in yellow, gold, silver and white

On black paper children draw one or more Christmas angels, flying in a starry sky. By limiting the number of colours, children are forced to think about the use of patterns in the dresses of the angels.

Finish the work with a frame; a simple straight line, a dot pattern or a golden frame!

Christmas angels, by children of grade 5