Chinese Coin Tree
Create your own Chinese coin tree to celebrate the Chinese new year or make it as a project while learning about Chinese culture.
Featured Crafts
Supplies Needed
- Red construction paper
- Any brown-colored paper (e.g. brown construction paper, kraft paper, brown butcher paper)
- Gold poster paint or tempera paint
- Coins
- Paint brush
- Scissors
- Glue
STEPS
1Make a tree trunk outline.
Draw an outline of a tree trunk on brown-colored paper. A different way of drawing a tree outline is to trace around your hand and forearm.
Another option is to print out any of these templates on brown paper:
- Tree trunk - print out any of the templates
- Tree - print out the first page of Template 1
2Crumple the paper.
Crumple up the paper.
3Open the paper.
Gently open and spread out the paper.
4Paint the paper.
Paint the tree trunk and the branches with gold tempera or poster paint. Do not water down the paint or add just enough water to make the paint spreadable. The paper's crumpled surface will absorb the paint unevenly, giving it the appearance of a tree bark.
5Cut out the tree trunk.
Once the paint dries, cut out the entire tree trunk.
6Glue the tree trunk.
Glue the tree trunk onto background paper. Red is a classic color in Chinese culture though you can choose other colors as well.
7Prepare some coins.
Gather various-sized coins to use for printing the coins on the tree.
8Paint the coin.
Paint one side of the coin with gold poster paint or tempera paint.
9Press the coin onto paper.
Place the coin, painted side down, close to a tree branch. Press for a few seconds to transfer the paint from the coin to the paper.
10Remove the coin.
Lift the coin to reveal the golden coin print.
11Make more coin prints.
Continue making coin prints until the tree is laden with coins. Once the paint dries, hang up the picture for lots of good luck and prosperity.
More Ideas
Use textured paper.
If you use textured paper for the tree trunk, you won't need to do Steps 2 and 3. A textured background paper also creates an interesting effect on the coin prints.
