Line and pattern Christmas bauble art lesson and printable

This Christmas bauble art lesson lets you explore line and pattern with a free printable bauble printable and art inspiration handout. It’s easy, fun and gorgeous!

Christmas bauble surface pattern art lesson

Explore the art of line and pattern designs while you decorate a Christmas bauble. We’re got free printables to get you started – just bring a pen or pencil.

It’s a great project for all ages, at any time in the holidays when you need a simple, engaging activity. It’s perfect as a substitute teacher art lesson or a community art event.

Pop on some Christmas tunes and draw!

This project is part of our Christmas art lessons. See ten more Christmas baubles art lessons here.

In this article you can:

:: learn about line and pattern art techniques

:: decorate a Christmas bauble with lines and patterns

:: download free Christmas bauble printables and a Line and Pattern Art inspiration sheet

:: develop line work, pen / pencil grip and fine motor skills

:: find links to more Christmas-themed art lessons

Materials needed

:: Line and Pattern Baubles printables (see below for details of how to print)

:: Patterns and Lines Art Handout (see below for details of how to print)

:: Pens and pencils

:: Stickers (optional)

:: Scissors (optional)

There are two versions of the baubles printable to choose from:

:: one is a blank bauble template just with lines for you to follow

:: one is a bauble template with a line / pattern suggestion on each row for you to follow and complete. This version is great if you’re not sure how to get started or need to build your confidence. You might like to complete this one first before using the other bauble printable with your own designs. It can also work as a literacy center to work on pencil grip and control.

The Patterns and Lines Art Handout is a great information and inspiration resource.

Surface pattern designs using line and pattern

Surface pattern art creates designs to cover products such as fabric, wall paper, and gift wrap. Surface pattern often uses a format of repeating patterns which can be made from lines, marks, and shapes.

We’re going to use pattern and lines to design a surface pattern to decorate Christmas baubles.

You can print a pattern and line art handout sheet (from our Laurel Burch cats cart lesson) to use as reference and inspiration to decorate your bauble.

There are lots of ways to use pattern and line. You could:

:: use geometric shapes like circles, squares, and triangles. Draw big shapes and small shapes. Leave some as an outline only, colour some in. Put shapes inside shapes. Draw several shapes together to make repeating patterns

:: use lines: thin lines, thick lines. Long and short lines. Strait lines and wavy lines. Dashed, dotted, and zigzag lines. Draw one line on its own or combine several. Fill the shapes with lines.

:: make marks: crosses, swirls, and scribbles

:: make blocks of patterns

How to decorate your bauble

Take the bauble printable a decide what you want to use to create your patterns. You could use a pencil or a marker pen. You could even use small stickers instead of a pencil or pen.

You could use a black pen or a coloured one.

You might choose to create a monochrome bauble with all the different patterns in one colour. You might choose to create a multicoloured bauble with each row completed in a different colour.

You might use the tradition red and green Christmas colour scheme, go with bright and bold colours, or use a rainbow of colours.

Work on one line at a time. Start a pattern design continue it along the whole width of the row.

Use a different pattern and / or colour on the next row.

Keep adding patterns until the bauble is full.

Cut out the bauble with scissors if you wish, and hang on the wall or Christmas tree.

Ten Days of Christmas Art Baubles

Want to make more baubles? Join us for ten days of Christmas Bauble Art lessons making ten different designs inspired by famous art and interesting process art techniques. Includes Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Yayoi Kusama, Georges Seurat and Alma Woodsey Thomas, plus marbling, wax resist, squeegee art, printing and collage techniques.

More Christmas activities and crafts

See our full index of Christmas activities and crafts for even more great ideas for your children, including more Christmas-themes art lesson and crafts.