Easy Tree Painting for Kids
Did you know you can make an easy tree painting using broccoli!? It’s so much fun painting with this unusual “paintbrush”. Who knew it was so easy to create beautiful fall leaves using broccoli as a stamp?!
Easy Tree Painting
This easy tree painting is a perfect art project for fall. All you need is one small broccoli floret and you can make 4 or 5 fall tree paintings. Some kids might not love eating broccoli, but they’ll definitely enjoy painting with it!
My 10 year old and 7 year old LOVED this activity! They experimented with all sorts of fall colours, and even blue and purple – and all of their trees looked surprisingly good.
Feel free to grab the printable tree template (see below) so you can easily print out a tree shape for your little artist. Painting trees can be difficult for some kids, but our template will make things super easy!
Check out our Broccoli Painting video tutorial:
*Note: Scroll down for the step-by-step photo tutorial.
Looking for more fall craft ideas? Here’s some of our favourites:
Here’s what you’ll need:
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The full printable instructions are at the end of this post, but here’s a list of products on Amazon and Target that are similar to the supplies we used:
- Cardstock
- Paintbrush (optional)
- Printable tree template (optional)
- Acrylic paint
- Paper plate
- Fresh broccoli floret (uncooked)
Grab the free printable templates here:
There are 2 template options: One is a solid brown tree that’s ready for leaves. The other one is a tree outline that can be painted or coloured in before painting.
Click the links below to open the pdf templates. Then print your template onto regular printer paper or cardstock.
How much broccoli is needed for one painting?
You only need 1 small floret of broccoli that can be used for at least 5 paintings, probably even more.
It’s easy to dab off the extra paint before moving on to new colours – it’s also okay if the colours mix and blend a little bit. We used each broccoli piece to paint 4 or 5 trees and it held up well.
Why does my paint look like blobs instead of leaves?
If you have dense blobs of paint on your tree instead of dainty leaf dots, you have too much paint on the broccoli. It’s important to dab the extra paint off the broccoli before stamping it onto the tree.
How to Make an Easy Tree Painting
Materials:
- Cardstock
- FREE Printable Tree template(optional; link in tips section below)
- Acrylic paint(or tempera/washable paint)
Equipment:
- 1 floret of broccoli
- Paintbrush(optional)
Instructions:
Step 1: Paint tree trunk
- Using a paintbrush, paint a tree trunk and branches with dark brown paint.
- Or simply print off our tree templates to make things really easy (see the links below!).
Step 2: Set up for painting
- Add different colours of paint to a paper plate. Place them very close together, so that they’re touching in the center.For this painting we used green, yellow, red, and orange.
- Break off a small floret of broccoli. Set aside the rest of the broccoli for your dinner, because you only need 1 small piece.Be sure to shake or brush off the floret so that any loose pieces come off (and won’t get stuck in the paint!).
Step 3: Paint leaves with broccoli
- Dip the broccoli floret in the center of your paint colours. Roll it around a bit so that you have an even amount of each colour on the broccoli.
- On another part of the paper plate, dab off the excess paint. This is really important, so that you don’t get dense blobs of paint on your tree.
- Begin stamping the broccoli onto the tree branches.
- Rotate the broccoli piece as you’re stamping to get different colour combinations.Add more paint to your broccoli as needed.
- Place a paper towel or scrap piece of paper under the bottom of the painting and dab fallen leaves at the base of the tree.
- Your easy tree painting is complete!
Helpful Tip:
Do I have to use the tree template?
You definitely don’t have to use the tree template! Feel free to paint your own tree trunk and branches.
You can draw an outline lightly in pencil first, or simply paint the tree freehand. You could even cut a tree out of construction paper and glue it to the paper before painting it.
What can I use instead of broccoli?
Try cutting a kitchen sponge into a circle shape or use sponge brushes. Just be careful not to use too much paint, and to really dab it off, since a sponge absorbs so much.
You could also use q-tips, the tip of a pencil eraser, fingerprints, bubblewrap, or cotton balls (connect a clothespin to them for easy dipping).
Painting with broccoli is so much fun, so why stop at fall colours?! Use pink, white, and green for spring trees or paint with white on blue paper for a winter tree!
Here’s even more kids art ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books- A- Million | Indiebound | Indigo | Amazon Canada