Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Happy new year - Chinese new year that is!

Today begins the year of the fire monkey and to respect the Spring Festival we have created an oriental cherry blossom tree.

Other than the usual materials, you will need an empty plastic bottle - the smaller the better!

I used pink, purple and white paint to give a variety of colours, and spread it thinly onto a plate so the picture didn't get lagged!

This is the tricky bit! Using a black marker draw a tree onto card. I drew lots of wiggly lines heading up and out, then made them thicker to look like branches.

Then it's over to the Zebra! Dip the bottom of the bottle into the paint and then stamp all acros the tree to give it the blossoms. She really enjoyed making the pink prints all over the page, in fact she was so engrossed there wasn't a single bit of paint on her toes!!

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