Artful Adventures: Button Tree Art

You may or may not have been able to attend our latest Artful Adventures Button Tree Art at Randall Oaks Library, now is your chance to make some for yourself!

You just need a few simple craft supplies and a vision to create your own masterpiece!

First get a canvas, really any size will work, but we used an 8 x 10 size canvas for the project at our program.  You will also need acrylic paint, black or brown for your tree, and some different colors for your background, I chose 3 colors pink, orange and yellow that blended nicely together, and possibly a white as well if you want to create an ombre look that we did.  We used Apple Barrel brand acrylic paint which comes in many colors, is cheap, and widely available in many stores.   Paintbrushes are also needed; I recommend getting a medium sized foam brush for your background and a small paint brush to paint your tree.  You can get a basic brush set for cheap at your craft store as well if you want options. You will also need buttons, various sizes and colors are recommended, but you can get whatever color or size you want for your project.  We bought a bag of 1000 mixed buttons on Amazon for $6.99. 

Once you have your necessary supplies it is time to get started.

First off you will want to paint your background.  The best way I found to create a nice looking ombre background is to start at the bottom with a stripe of your lightest color horizontally across the canvas, then put a stripe of your medium tone color across the middle of the canvas, and finally add a stripe of your darkest color across the top of the canvas.  You will then take your medium sized foam brush and start at the bottom with your lightest color and spread the stripe of paint horizontally across the canvas. Keep moving the paint brush horizontally across the canvas while slowly moving up the canvas as well.  This will spread the lightest paint and run into the medium color paint and then finally reach the top with the darkest color of paint.  You should get a nice looking ombre background.

Pro Tip: Having colors that are similar or blend nicely to create other colors are recommended so your background doesn’t end up looking muddy. Try not to put colors opposite on the color wheel such as blue and orange, or yellow and purple next to each other on the canvas. 

Once the background is dry, it is time to paint your tree, you can paint it free hand or if you are not as artistically inclined as others you may print out a tree silhouette and trace that onto your canvas and fill it in with your brown or black paint. You will want your tree to have branches and no leaves because the buttons you will add are going to be your leaves. While waiting for your tree to dry, now is the time to choose what buttons you want for your leaves. Choose all one color or a mixture of colors depending on your taste. After your paint is finished drying lay out your buttons until you are happy with the layout of the project and then glue down your buttons.

You now have a unique piece of art to proudly display in your home.

Look for more Artful Adventure projects at the Randall Oaks Library!