Watercolor Art Project

Last night I poured over a number of art activities found in The Artful Parent and decided to try a few. So today, we made our own watercolor paints and tried watercolor resist with contact paper.

I learned that Des was too young to be around for the paint-making process. I should have mixed the paint ingredients with Aislin while Des was engrossed in doing something downstairs, and then brought him up when it was time to paint. I also learned that making our own watercolor paints used a lot of our baking materials, and that, unless I owned baking soda, corn starch and everything else in big Costco-sized cans, buying a set of watercolor paints would probably be cheaper than making our own!

 This was taken after we had finished painting, which is why the yellow and green paints no longer look yellow and green! I now need to buy a new bottle of white vinegar and a new can of corn starch....

In spite of the bumps we ran into, including trying to use a muffin baking pan for the paints and then realizing the cups were too small for mixing the ingredients, the project itself was a lot of fun :) Des enjoyed naming the shapes I made out of contact paper and then smashing the paintbrush into his construction paper...while Aislin enjoyed putting drops of food coloring on top of her watercolor strokes.

Letting our work dry with the contact paper still on. 

I think my kids got a little carried away with the watercolors because, although their contact paper-shapes were firmly pressed onto their papers, the paint still seeped under the contact paper.

Desmond's work after his shapes were peeled off.

 After it dried.

You can see some of the shapes pretty well, but I think they might would have been clearer if he had also tried playing with the food coloring. But he was content spreading the yellow and green around :)

Aisin's work after her shapes were peeled off.

After it dried.

I love all the colors! The paint definitely seeped under her shapes so you have to look closely for a heart, a triangle and the letter B! 

My work after my stars were peeled off.

After it dried.

Stinkin' awesome!! I used the first picture as my phone's wallpaper lol :D

Plan for next time: 

Buy a set of watercolor paints and watercolor paper, and try a new activity...perhaps Leaf Paint and Print or Yarn Painting!