Holiday Window Decor

In order for my oldest son to attend preschool, I volunteer my time at his school in exchange for tuition. One of the things I began in September is decorating the front windows for each season.  This could be an inexpensive and fun thing to do at home as well.  All you need is acrylic paint and a brush.  I even painted my back sliding door for my daughter's birthday party!  

For the winter scene I decided to do winter animals, Birch trees and snowflakes.  This can easily last through February.  Who knows, I may even add some hearts for Valentine's Day.  

I'm a planner so I first draw my idea out on a regular sheet of paper.  Then I lay butcher paper on my floor and draw out my design life sized.  I tape the butcher paper to the outside of the window and paint from the inside.  The hardest part for me is painting backwards!  Because you are layering the paint from front to back, you have to think and paint the opposite of how you normally would.  For example.  I actually started with the whites of the eyes, then after they dried I added the black for the eyes, as well as the nose and mouth.  Once that was dry I painted the rest of the face over the facial features.  I added the trees and snow last.  I probably should have done this over two days instead of one.  I ended up rushing the snow so I'm not completely happy with that part of it.  This was a big job but a simple design like snowflakes or a Christmas tree on your front window could be really cute.

Here is the finished product.  Sorry about the glare.

The birds were rushed at the end.  This is actually the second attempt at the little red bird.  My accident prone son mistakenly wiped the first bird off with his rear end.

Back in September I did my first attempt at window painting but never posted it.  Here are the pumpkins I did for the school.  I washed them off with soap and water before putting up the winter window.  It was a big job to wash off so much.  My husband thinks that if I take a scraper the next time I have to wash off the paint, it will go a lot faster.  Cross your fingers on that!

Obviously nobody is going to do anything this huge on their own windows, but I still think it could be tweaked for your own holiday decor.  I know my kids absolutely love it.  Hopefully it can inspire you to try something new and different!  Happy window painting!