Treasured trinkets for the tree

Projects from Family Times magazine

Get creative for Christmas with beautiful birds and sparkling stars.

How to make Christmas ornaments from coasters
Birds on a branch

Birds on a branch

Transform bamboo coasters into festive decorations. By mum-of-three and keen painter, Pam Mirk.

You'll need:

Coasters
Ribbon or twine
Resene testpots in colours of your choice. For this project, I used:
- Resene All Black
- Resene Aoraki
- Resene Brown Bramble
- Resene Energy Yellow
- Resene Red Hot
- Resene Green House
- Resene Bondi Blue

Instructions:

On your coaster, draw your bird, or whatever other subject you’d like, in pencil. Older children will love coming up with their own Christmas or Kiwiana designs.
Paint base Resene colours first, then your picture and then a black outline.
You can leave as is or apply Resene Concrete Clear or Resene Aquaclear for a glossier protective finish.
Add ribbon to hang.
If you plan to use this as a gift, you can write your message on the back of the coaster.

Stars up high

The kids will love painting their own sparkling stars for the tree.

Let them go wild with colour, or use a Resene FX Metallic colour of their choice. Get the kids to write their names and the year on the back of their stars, so they can look at them and remember the fun of creating them, year after year.