Difficulty Rating -

Canal art is really distinctive usually depicting roses and castles. Canal art has been around since the mid nineteenth century. Narrow boats are still decorated in the traditional canal art style today, along with an array of house hold items from cups to watering cans, and from wooden spoons to photo frames.

Painting canal art roses is actually very easy, and you don't need to be an artist to achieve traditional looking roses. Follow the step by step guide to make beautiful canal art Christmas baubles.

To make canal art Christmas baubles you will need...
Black Christmas baubles,
A selection of enamel paints - (Pots of Airfix type paints are great)
Turps or white spirit to clean the brush,
And a soft bristle painting brush.

Make sure that bauble is clean and grease free otherwise the paint will not stick properly. Sit the bauble on its side in an old egg cup, this will hold it securely and stop it from rolling away. If you are painting just one side of the bauble, make sure that the side facing up does not have a seam running up it. You are now ready to begin.

Select the first colour of paint. This will be the rose's main background colour. It is usually quite a deep colour. Paint a circle in the middle of your bauble to begin the first flower.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash out the brush in turps of white spirit.

Take a second colour, to paint the flower centre background. Paint an oval shape to cover a quarter of the first circle. If you want the flower head to point up, put the oval on the top of the circle. If you want the flower to look down, paint the oval on the bottom of the circle. Likewise paint the oval on the left or right if you want the flower to look in that direction.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

Select another colour for the petals; this is usually a lighter colour than the other two. The next two stages should both fit inside the secondary colour oval that you last painted. First paint crescent shape with the open ends coming downwards. Paint the crescent so that the curve of the back of the crescent and just breaks over the top of the background circle, this will give it a less circular look.

In a similar way now paint another crescent the other way up to slightly enclose the first one. Again the tips of this crescent should protrude over the background circle.

Below this paint smaller crescents that slightly extend out from the background, but only come in as far as the centre of the circle. Paint two such crescents side by side in a 'W' fashion.

Paint as many double crescents as will fit on the circle.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

With a contrasting colour paint the stamen in the centre of the rose. The stamen is simply one line from the centre, and tow coming up diagonally from it in a crown like way. At the top of each line paint a dot.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

At the bottom of the rose paint ovals in green for leaves. Rose leaves have pointed tips.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

Take a contrasting colour and paint on the leaves veins; these are simple 'V' shapes coming off a central line.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

Use white to make small dots around the edges of the leaves.

Leave the bauble to dry and wash the brush.

Using glitter glue, add a bit of sparkle to the stamen, the rose petal edges and the leaves.

Beautiful canal art style Christmas Baubles, something a bit unusual to adorn your Christmas tree.