The colours I’ve used for this winter art project make are all blues and purples, making it perfect for the colder months but this sled craft can be easily adapted for Christmas too.
This easy art idea is one that is also suitable for a large range of ages – the method used makes this a great activity for preschoolers but it’s also fun enough for school age kids.
You’ll also be using our free sled template to make preparing this activity even easier giving you more time to have fun with your child.
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Sled Art Project
Despite the bare trees and lack of flowers winter is a great time to get inspired for some art projects. You might not have the flower blossoms of spring but there’s still plenty to motivate you to get creative.
If you’ve been skating or sledging then this easy project is perfect and even if you haven’t (it never snows where we live) then it’s still nice to do some winter themed art. I always recommend a hot chocolate too to get you in the mood for it!
This sled craft was totally influenced by our northern lights art activity, in fact I made this sled art first and then realised how much it reminded me of the northern light.
While I’ve used traditional winter shades of blue, green and purple you can of course change your colours. If you’d like to make this as a Christmas themed art then red and green would obviously be a great choice.
I’ve included lots of step by step photos in this tutorial to help you make it but I really believe that this is a esy activity that everyone can join in with.
Sled Art Materials
- Sled template (see below)
- Washable markers
- Water spray
- Kitchen foil
Free Sled Template
You can of course draw the outline for your sled yourself but I know that as my drawing can be a little erratic I love it when I can just print something off.
Our free sled template is a PDF that can be printed as many times as you like, so if you’re making this activity in preschool or a classroom it’s great for helping you to prepare.
Sled Craft Instructions
Start by printing out your sled template onto white paper or cardstock. Paper is great if that’s what you have at home however cardstock can generally hold a bit more ink before it becomes saturated.
Grab a piece of aluminum foil and make sure that it is larger than your template so that your watercolours will cover the whole thing of your template.
Using your markers colour in your foil. Scribbling is absolutely fine for this and to be encouraged, you want to cover as much of the foil as is possible with your markers and there’s no real point in doing any fancy drawings as they will disappear once you add your water. This makes it a great activity for toddlers and preschoolers to join in with as they are excellent at scribbling!
Go for different shades of blue and corresponding colours like greens and purples to make this more of a winter art or shades of green and red if you want to make this into a Christmas art project.
Tip – Carefully hold your template above your coloured foil to check the placement of your colouring and make sure that all the area will be covered and colour in more of your foil if you need to.
Using your water spray cover your coloured foil in water. Ideally you want enough water that your colours run but not so much that they go everywhere as they can drip on your page. This isn’t an exact science by any stretch of the imagination though so just keep on spraying a small amount until you think all your ink is covered.
Place your template facedown onto your ink covered foil and then lift it straight up again. As all ink cartridges are different it’s impossible to tell how long you have before the ink on your template starts to run so get this done quickly!
Leave your sled artwork to dry.
If you wish to once your watercolour art is dry you can now colour in the sleigh shape so that it stands out more. I’ve used a black marker pen for this but you can use any colour you like.
A word or warning on this is to really make sure that your paper or cardstock is properly dry before you try to colour on it, I arguably did mine a bit too early and I was really worried that the ink from my pen would leak onto the background.
More Winter Art Ideas for Kids
This winter tree art is really easy to make and we’ve shared several ideas that you can try with our child. It also uses our free tree template which is great if you want to try out a few different techniques.
Winter can seem a little dark and meh at times so why not make a winter lantern to brighten things up? These are also really good to decorate either with paints or markers.
Finally these paper plate snowflakes were really popular with my kids and are a good one if you have a lot of art supplies that need using up!
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