Christmas Tree with Cardinal Craft Tutorial

Let’s make something really cute with our Christmas Fun Box! This is the perfect winter craft project to create some cute home decor that you can enjoy all season long! Read all the details below for this Christmas Tree with Cardinal Craft Tutorial!

Supplies:

• Pine tree, snowflakes, and cardinal from our Christmas Fun Box
• 16 Wooden shims
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Wood stain (Early American)
• Paint Brushes (for applying stain & paint)
• Baby wipes / paper towels
• Sandpaper
• Dixy Bell antique wax ( Get it HERE on my affiliate link)
• Blending tool  (for applying wax)
• Acrylic paint (green, black, brown, red, white,
• Popsicle stick
• Glitter
• Snow-Tex texture paste from DecoArt (Get it HERE on my affiliate link)
• Sprigs of little sticks
• Burlap strands or ribbon to make a bow
• A small rusty bell (Get them HERE on my affiliate link)

Step 1: Glue Wood Shims Together

The first thing we’ll need to do is create a base for our project. I glued two shims together, thin side to thick side to create some thicker boards. I made seven of these, two shims each (14 total shims). Then I lined them up along the long edges to create my background base. I hot glued another shim near the top half of the group and another at the bottom half of the group to secure all the boards in place.

(The shims do not come with the Christmas fun box but you can get them at Lowe’s or other hardware store for fairly cheap.)

Step 2: Stain & Sand the Background

Next, coat your background with wood stain. I used “Early American”, gave it a good coat, then wiped off the excess with a baby wipe. Next, I took some sand paper and gave it a good sand to start giving it a worn, rustic look.

Step 3: Add Antique Wax to the Background

After sanding, I used a sponge to apply a rough layer of antique wax from Dixy Bell to add to the rustic look. I made sure everything was good and dry before moving to the next step. I like to use a hair dryer to speed up the process.

Step 4: Paint the Tree, Cardinal, and Snowflakes

Next I painted the pine tree with acrylic paint color “moss”. Once that was dry, I sanded it good to give it a nice scuffed look.

To make it look like chippy wood, I used a little bit of black acrylic paint and the edge of a popsicle stick to pull some texture over the tree. To achieve this look, you’ll want to use minimal paint and scrape it across your project.

I added a little brown to the leftover black paint on my pallet to get a dark brown color and painted the tree trunk with it.

Next I panted the cardinal with my favorite trusty “flamenco red” acrylic paint. After letting it dry a bit, I scuffed it also with some sandpaper and applied some more of that Dixy Bell antique wax.

Then I painted the snowflakes with white and while the paint was still wet, I sprinkled some sparkly glitter over them.

Step 5: Dry-brush the Wood Panel Background

I decided to dry brush my board background panel with some white acrylic paint. Some of you gave me that suggestion a while back and I thought that was a great idea!

Step 6: Hot Glue Main Elements

Once everything is dry, it’s time to start gluing down all the elements. I used a hot glue gun and silicone glue sticks for this. I glued my tree down, then my cardinal on top, and the snowflakes onto the background around the tree.

Step 7: Apply Snow-Tex for “Snow” & Glitter

To add the look of snow, initially I used a different type of snow but I felt like there wasn’t enough “pop” so I decided to cover it up with some thicker medium. I used Snow-Tex and applied it to the bottom area below the evergreen tree and sprinkled glitter on top while it was still wet.

Step 8: Hot Glue Final Accents

I decided to add a few more accents to my project starting with a few sprigs from a grapevine wreath that I had tore apart to make it look like he was sitting on some branches. I also took a few stands out of some burlap and made a little bow for the top of the tree and added a rusty bell, hot gluing everything in place.

Step 9: Apply Final “Snow” and Glitter

Last, I added some more “snow” using the Snow-Tex on the edges of the tree and top edge of the cardinal and sprinkled some glitter on top of that to make it sparkle.

This turned out so cute! Let me know what you think and if you plan on giving this a try!

Again, you can check out all our craft kits HERE and the elements used in this specific craft in our Christmas Fun Box HERE. We love to craft around here and if you are looking for even more ideas, check out the latest on our Blog! Happy crafting!

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