Salt Painted Christmas Tree

We love salt painting as a craft activity. It’s really easy to set up and kids love seeing the “magic” happen when the paint runs along the salt. This salt painted Christmas tree activity can actually be done two ways. You can do salt painting or you can make a glitter painted Christmas tree. You can even turn the glitter painted trees into Christmas cards.

RELATED: Christmas Crafts for Kids

Salt Painted Christmas Tree Activity

If you’d rather not do salt painting, you can use this same printable template to make glitter painted Christmas trees.

Follow along with the same steps but instead of adding salt on top, add your favorite glitter.

 We made this craft really simple by including a free template. You can get the template sent to you at the bottom of the post.

You can also do this activity drawing your own Christmas trees too!

 

Supplies Needed for Salt Painting

• White thick cardstock
• Liquid watercolors – we like this brand
• Salt – regular table salt
• White glue – this bottle size is the best for tracing our template as the nozzle is smaller.
• Paintbrush
• A little bit of water

 

Watch the Video Tutorial

TIPS FOR SALT PAINTING: 

• Use a higher concentrated solution of liquid watercolors. Only add a small amount of water to your solution to keep the colors more vibrant. If you use food coloring, then don’t dilute it too much.
• You can use regular watercolors also.
• Dip your paintbrush gently into your liquid watercolors. Only get a little bit of watercolor at a time. If you have too much water when you’re painting the water may spill over the salted area. Don’t worry too much if you’re doing this for fun with the kids. But if you want to keep it as art to hang up we found using just a little bit of paint works best.
• We like to paint right away. The salt will be a little more clumpy if you wait.
• Use some cardboard underneath your cardstock to avoid getting your counter or table wet as the liquid watercolor may seep through a bit.
• Use a thick white cardstock to avoid paint bleeding  – this white cardstock is thicker than regular sizes but you can also check the thickness of the paper when ordering (we like 100 lbs).

Steps for Salt Painting

1. Print off the template.

First print off the template or draw your own Christmas tree.

2. Trace with glue.

Begin by tracing the Christmas tree with your glue.

Don’t worry about some black showing through when you trace with the glue. Once you add the salt on top the black will not be noticeable.

3. Sprinkle on salt.

Now for the fun part! Sprinkle the salt on top of the glue. We like to keep a separate stash of salt for art activities. When you’re done, you can shake off the excess salt and store again for another salt craft.

Or you can use it again to make these salt painted snowflakes.

Tip: Pour lots of salt over your Christmas tree to ensure you coat all of the glue. If you miss a spot then the color won’t run over that part.

4. Now you can begin to paint with your watercolors!

We like to use liquid watercolors as they are easy to use and more vibrant than food coloring or regular watercolors. However, food coloring or regular watercolors would also work. Whichever paint you decide to use, don’t dilute it with too much water to keep the colors vibrant.

If you’re looking for a low cost brand of liquid watercolors we like these ones.

 

5. Once you’re done the salt painting, you can decorate your tree.

Add some confetti ornaments or sequins to the tree. We also added a gold glitter star to the top. You can also salt paint the star instead.

We love how this salt painted Christmas tree turned out! Your kids will love creating it too!

To make the glitter painted version, simply sprinkle glitter on top of your glue instead of salt and then decorate.

If you want to preserve your art, let it dry and scrape off any loose salt when finished.

Get the Free Printable Christmas Tree Template

 

More Christmas Ideas

If you love salt painting, see our salt painted snowflakes with free printable template.

These handprint Christmas cards make the cutest keepsake cards for Christmas. See how to make a Santa, reindeer and elf handprint card.

This Christmas tree handprint card includes fingerprints for the lights and is really easy to make.

For more Christmas craft ideas, see 50+ Christmas Crafts for Kids.