Bubble Painting

It has been a while since I posted anything - keeping up with a two year old is exhausting!

Anyway, hopefully I will get to post some new work of my own soon, but in the mean time I am going to do a series on quick, easy, not-so messy art projects to do with kids - but adults will have fun too, and it just might spark your creativity.

And since I have said two year old, keep in mind that sometimes the set-up takes longer than the project since I am working with a 10-15 minute attention span.

I had seen some pins and blog entries on bubble painting a while back and wanted to give it a try. I figured O-man would enjoy the bubbles even if the art didn't work. And he did. HOWEVER, even though O-man drinks from straws all the time, he couldn't quite figure out the coordination to blow out on the straw and breathe in WITHOUT sucking up soapy paint water. (Yep, a couple of sputtering tries later, I took over the blowing of the bubbles.)

This one CAN get a bit messy - the bubbles are holding paint, so wherever the bubbles go, so does your paint. But, since there is soap mixed into the paint, the clean-up isn't too bad.

So here is the project:

MATERIALS:
-Paint (We used liquid watercolors since that is what I had. Finger paint didn't work very well - I think because it was too heavy to get picked up by the bubbles.)
-Dish soap
-Bowls (One for each color you want to use. Plastic disposable bowls work great. I didn't have any, so I used some glass ones from the cabinet.)
-Straws
-Paper (We used card stock - it is a bit thicker so it is stiffer and hold up to toddler hands and water.)
-Table covering (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:
In each bowl, fill about half full of water and add a few drops of paint. The more paint you add, the darker your colors will be. It also depends on what kind of paint you are using.

Add a couple of drops of dish soap to each bowl and stir to mix.

Now comes the FUN! Use a straw to blow bubbles into each bowl of water. The bubbles last a while, so no need to rush. In fact, we lined up our four bowls down the center of the table, blew into each one and then moved on to the next step.

Gently lay your paper on top of the bubbles. You can turn and roll your paper to collect more bubbles. As the bubbles pop and dry, they will leave a print on the paper. You can layer colors to create different patterns and cover the whole paper.

As the bubbles disappear, use the straw to blow more bubbles, and repeat.

AFTER CREATION:
So of course, this can just be a fun experiment for exploring a new way to create art. It is also a great way to create a background for a future drawing or painting, start a journal page, create collage paper, or anything else you can think of.