Blue Christmas

I wanted to do some easy Christmas crafts to get the Bees into the mood of feliz navidad, and chanced upon this intriguing art piece after some googling. According to conscientious Big Bee, this was the hardest piece of art and craft she had done, which I wonder why! Little Bee just went with the flow in her usual free-spirited way. 

Hubby loves it, and declared that we should frame these up. I thought we might improve further with subsequent attempts, but I was heartened that this was so easy and fun!

Step 1: Draw and cut out 3 Christmas trees from construction paper. Ideally thick construction paper. I used normal paper and the effect was not good in the end - as you can see why below. Arrange the trees around a piece of art paper to resemble a fir tree forest. 

Big Bee's cut-outs

Little Bee's cut-outs

Step 2: Use white chalk and trace the trees as well as the forest floor, which could be hilly or flat. Good to use thick crayons for a more striking effect. Draw in dots for snowflakes and a nice round or crescent moon hanging in the sky. It can be challenging to use white crayon to draw on white paper, but this is part of the fun! 

Step 3: This is the fun part! Take out the construction paper of the 2 trees at the sides, leaving the construction paper for the little tree in the centre. The Bees then painted a layer of light blue watercolour painting over the whole paper, except for the ground and the moon. They were awe-struck by the fact that their paint glided smoothly over their crayon outlines of their earlier sketches. It was brilliant seeing them swish their watercolour brushes over the snowflakes and giggling that their sketches came to life with a light blue background! It is essential to use watercolour for its translucent and layering effect. 

Big Bee's crayon outlines!

Little Bee's crayon outlines! 

Step 4: Put back the construction paper of the 2 trees by the sides if you wish. Otherwise, use darker blue paint and paint the sky, avoiding painting into the trees. The Bees put the thin pieces of paper back and made the mistakes of painting over the thin paper, so the paint seeped through the paper, hence losing a significant portion of the final effect. 

Step 5: Take out the paper for the little Christmas tree (and all the rest of the construction paper) and tadah - we have a nice, chilly-looking winter scene, set in the thick of twilight! 

Big Bee's blue fir tree forest :) 

Little Bee's blue fir tree forest :) 

Once again, this was done in under an hour - and the Bees really loved this, especially how the white crayon outline "shone through" the blue paint! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!