We have some huge pine trees in our backyard that are always dropping tons and tons of pine needles. This week we decided to collect a bunch of them (plus a few pine cones) and make some pine needle paintbrushes. We used the pine needle paintbrushes to create some mini masterpieces on these itty bitty canvases that I bought.
Materials Needed to make your paint brushes:
- Pine needles
- Masking tape (or painter’s tape)
- Kid’s washable paint
- Mini canvases (or any other surface you want to use)
- Optional- pine cones
- Optional- inspirational quote print outs
- Optional- Modge Podge and paint brush
To make our pine needle paint brushes we just tightly taped around the bottom of the pine needle bunch. The pineneedle brushes made an interesting paint stroke.
Once they were made we started creating!
The canvases turned out beautifully. We created one 2×2 in canvas and one 5×7 in canvas.
As an optional project for older kids (late elementary school/middle school), I thought that these mini masterpieces could be used to create inspirational art pieces that showcase favorite quotes or sayings. As a middle schooler I had an entire shelf filled with little knick-knacks and favorite quotes/lyrics. Do any of you have kids that like that sort of stuff? For this project I chose two favorite quotes from my pinterest boards, printed them off, and then modge podged them onto the mini masterpieces.
They are now making me smile every time I go into my kitchen.
Do you have any other favorite painting techniques?
What is the quote that you would hang up so you could see it and remember it every day?
We love trying out new methods and techniques. Some other favorite Quirky Momma painting posts are listed below. Definitely try them if you haven’t already!
Thank you for sharing this post! I love it!
Makes me wish we actually had pine trees in the area 🙂
Thanks for linking to Science Sunday!
Wow! Never thought that was possible.
My daughter loves to paint, and we haven’t tried pine needles yet. Look so fun!
Fun activity. That’s a way to paint I’ve never thought to try before.