December 10, 2025

Evergreens and Holiday Gift Tags

Art Toolkit Ambassador Lisa shares her tips for painting conifers, and introduces a unique way to feature them!

By Lisa Spangler

A collection of hand-painted gift tags featuring holiday designs like trees, wreaths, and the word "PEACE." Brightly colored watercolor paints and a silver pen are included among the tags, which have red and green ribbons attached.

I have a confession to make: I used to have a hard time painting conifers. Yep, it’s true!

Here’s the story: I grew up in Northeast Ohio, surrounded by conifers, but moved to Austin, Texas, after college, where they were few and far between. And I didn’t start sketching and painting seriously until then.

My solution? Every holiday season, I’d practice painting trees on my Christmas cards. I’m pretty happy with my trees now, so I thought I’d share my tips and techniques with you.

Mix Greens

I like to start by figuring out which greens I’m going to use. The Explore Palette comes with two greens: Sap Green and Perylene Green. I use them as a base, and then add other colors to alter them.

A watercolor painting of a pine tree on a tag, a color swatch sheet featuring shades of green and pink, a watercolor paint palette with vibrant colors, a brush, and decorative berries.

I love using Sap Green mixed with Yellow Ochre for pines and Perylene Green mixed with Cerulean Blue Hue for spruce trees.

Add Festive Sparkle

This time of year calls for a little festive sparkle, so I like to add Daniel Smith Iridescent Gold to my paintings. This color is soft and subtle on its own, but watch what happens when you add it to the other colors on the palette:

A color palette featuring various shades with notes. At the top left, "ivory gold" is shown next to a dark gray labeled "payne's gray," with an arrow pointing to a new color blending both. Below, several squares in vibrant hues like yellow, pink, blue, and green are labeled with additional notes indicating combinations with gold.

Tip: I like to squeeze out a dollop of Iridescent Gold into a Mini Snap Container to keep it fresh, since it can be hard to rewet once it dries in a pan.

A watercolor palette with vibrant paints, a paintbrush, a tube of paint, a color swatch card showing various shades, and a holiday-themed tag featuring a pink and red Christmas tree design.

Tree Time

My tree game completely changed after I started using a dagger brush—it makes it super easy, and super fun, to paint a conifer!

I start by using the tip of the dagger brush straight on, to “stamp” the trunk with a light, juicy green, making sure to leave some gaps for center-facing branches. I’ve found that stamping the brush using the dagger really helps me get an even trunk that’s not too big on either end.

A brush with a pointed tip rests next to two thick strokes of turquoise paint on textured white paper.
A paintbrush rests next to green brush strokes on a white piece of paper placed on a wooden surface.

Then I dance my brush to create the branches using the same light green. Maria has a great video on this here:

While the paint is still wet, I have fun dropping in color and watching the watercolor magic happen. Use less water in the dropped-in paint mixture to prevent the paper from getting too wet.

Here are all of the steps in action:

Three illustrated steps for painting trees. The first shows a tree trunk created with a dagger brush technique. The second depicts the tree's foliage with lighter colors applied. The third adds a darker color to the wet foliage for depth. Tips are handwritten alongside each step.

If I’m making a tree that’s part of a landscape, I like to use negative painting to create grasses, like so:

Three artistic sketches of tree tips, showcasing different styles. The first is a tall, narrow pine-like shape, the second is a fuller, stylized evergreen, and the third includes a tree with vibrant green and yellow foliage. Handwritten text below reads "Tree Tips."

Now let’s put it all together by painting some gift tags!

Tree-mendous Tags

I had so much fun painting these tags that I didn’t want to stop! 😊

Painting tags is a low-pressure way to explore and have fun. They also make great bookmarks or hostess gifts for parties.

An assortment of handmade watercolor gift tags featuring various designs, including potted Christmas trees, wreaths, and a color palette. The tags have red and green ribbons, and there is a portable watercolor set and a pen included in the arrangement.

First, I did some traditional Christmas tree tags.

Four decorative gift tags featuring watercolor illustrations of Christmas trees in pots, tied with red ribbons. A small red box is placed beside the tags.

Then, some pink-themed tags, with a soft sunrise, using Allex Slim Scissors to trim the ribbons!

Three decorative gift tags with watercolor designs: one features a pink tree in a basket, another shows a green tree with a moon, and the third displays a wreath labeled "Peace." A pair of scissors and some snipped red ribbons are nearby.

And last but not least, a few more natural trees with garlands and leaves to get in some leaf practice, too.

Four decorative gift tags featuring watercolor illustrations of pine trees, floral wreaths, and the word "Peace." Each tag has a different design and is accented with red and green ribbons. A paintbrush lies beside the tags.

Hope this inspired you to paint some trees! Tag @sideoats and @arttoolkit on Instagram—we’d love to see what you create!

Lisa Spangler
Website | Social Media | Ambassador Page
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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