I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We did. We got a lot done on our fireplace mantel project and it looks so great.  I’ll promise to share all the details soon.  I’m so happy that it will be ready just in time to hang our stockings by the chimney with care.

Now that Thanksgiving 2011 has officially come to a close we can officially begin Christmas decorating of course. And nothing says handmade projects to me more than Christmas time.

Growing up we always had special holiday art that my Mom had made, hers was a wonderful embroidered Santa Claus I always admired. Each year at Christmastime it was part of the holiday preparations that magically transformed our house into the familiar Christmas home we’d grown up loving.

I’m definitely no stranger to fun Christmas projects to bring in that Holiday cheer. I love to paint and this little whimsical tree was a fun afternoon project.

To paint this Whimsical Tree I used a 12 x 12 inch canvas I had in my art closet and painted the entire canvas, background and sides a light blue color.

Next I transferred my Christmas Tree Sketch I drew (downloadable here) using carbon transfer paper.

Once the background is dry to the touch I painted the body of the tree a light Christmas Green.

I  painted the snow by using the eraser end of a pencil in cream, white and gray dipping the eraser in the paint and dotted in a random pattern. The Christmas lights are painted the same way using an eraser in dipped and dotted in purple, pink and yellow paint.

Next, I painted the hot pink tree skirt and outline the tree in dark green and the tree skirt and star in black.

Finally paint the package squares first in white which acts like primer over the darker background paint allowing the present colors to shine.

If you’re looking for a fun project to do with the kids this would be a fun and simple project. Just sketch yourself a tree or use my sketch and add some painted snow dots, Christmas lights and presents.

It also looks pretty darn cute propped on a table with few of your favorite Christmas things.