Project Complete: A Tree Grew...

Tree Mural Tutorial can be found here.

I did it a little more simply, mainly because I could not find an overhead projector. I just printed off pictures of her finished tree and free handed it onto the wall myself, using chalk like she suggests. It allowed me to erase more errors (because I am far from an artist, I don't even doodle because my doodles aren't pretty), make changes once I saw the big picture, and allowed for last minute changes as I was painting. The only issue with the chalk is painting over it, the paint will eventually flake off, so be aware of that and try and paint within the lines, or do what I did - wipe all the chalk off the walks after the first coat (because my tree did take 2 coats), helping that painted over chalk to flake off, then apply your second coat.
I found an angled tip brush really helpful when doing the leaves, but to do the large areas of the branches and trunk I was just frustrated will all of my brush options, first using one of the small bristled brushes for the first coat, and then a sponge brush for the second coat. In the first completed tree picture you can see the the trunk is quite blotchy, I finally just slapped paint up so that the green was at least covered and planned to make it look better with my second coat.
And then finally I added a few vinyl embellishments to the tree. I ordered from Single Stone Studios on etsy. She was very kind to alter the side of the birdhouse and the birds for me to fit my tree. The birds don't contrast the wall as much as I'd hoped, I am waiting for a day with some good sunlight to see how I feel about them, but I may be reordered them in a much darker blue.
It was a really fun project and I have never done anything like it. My daughter loves it and I love that it can grow with her. We've thought it would be fun to decorate it for different holidays, probably not with vinyl, but just making our own paper Christmas ornaments and things like that.
Anyway, here is the wall from start to finish, and with this first picture you can see why that blank canvas was just begging for a tree. (If you click on any of the photos they will get much bigger so you can see the details better, especially with the last one to see the birds.)