We so enjoyed our Fall Leaf Watercolor Resist art project that we of course had to do a winter version. And to make things even easier, I made a free printable template in case any of you want to make one too! :)
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To get the project ready, I lined up the free snowflake template with watercolor paper and taped both lightly to a window (if you are using thinner paper for painting, you might be able to see the template through it without using the backlight of a window). I then used my trusty hot glue gun to trace the snowflakes from the template in hot glue. If you had an older child and used a low heat setting, it would be possible for them to do this step. I felt that S is still young enough that it would be frustrating for her (she's JUST learning how to use the hot glue gun on low), so I did the tracing myself. She chose four shades of blue liquid watercolors (yes, we're that crazy - we have FOUR shades of blue) and painted away.
It was SO pretty to watch the blue fill in around the snowflakes.
S reeeeeally wanted to add salt (it bleaches out parts of the watercolor and makes an interesting pattern if you haven't tried it before). To have the salt work correctly, your painting needs to have a thin layer of moisture over it, so I had S dip her paintbrush in water and quickly dampen her whole painting.
Next she sprinkled salt! The less salt you add (i.e. the more space there is between salt grains), the better the effect is.
And after it dried, she had a GORGEOUS winter masterpiece.
You can download our free snowflake template here. This is for individual use only. Do not distribute this file on your website. Thanks. :)
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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children. As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family. I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.
Did you use white glue for the templates shown in the pic? What did you do?
ReplyDeleteThanks:)
Please read the post. Thanks!
DeleteCa fait un petit moment que je n'étais pas venue par ici et c'est toujours un plaisir de voir de super activités ! Encore une fois je suis fan !
ReplyDeleteMerci beaucoup! Je ai manqué vos commentaires! Je espère que vous faites bien. Je ne ai pas écris autant puisque le livre est sorti. :)
DeleteThanks so much for the idea, your post and the great template. My son and I made these today with our own twist. I posted it about it on my blog http://www.muddy-feet.com Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteSo fun! They turned out super cool - love the added sparkle!!! And thank you so much for linking! <3
DeleteDo you think you could make the snowflakes with regular glue? :)
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea!!!! :) Yep, definitely. It just takes forever to dry (up to 2 days), which is why we went for the instant hot glue... :)
DeleteWe did it with regular glue and blew dry the glue before painting :)
Deletethese are gorgeous! How long did it take for the watercolors/salt to dry?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! If you have some good paper and no "puddles" of color, it should take a little under an hour, I'd guess. Hope that helps! :)
DeleteThanks! One other question - I love that you used the four different color blues. Can you tell me what colors you have? When I click on the link, it only shows one blue.
DeleteWe are going to make these next week with a 2nd grade class as their winter project. I cannot tell you how much I love these!!!
Awesome!!!!! If you happen to take a photo, I would LOOOOOVE to see the finished art! And hmm, I believe I used blue, blue-green, turquoise, and navy blue? But honestly if you have green, blue, and purple on hand already, you could make your own shades by watering down some of the blue (light blue) for one, leaving one blue as is (dark blue), and then mixing a drop or two of green for a different shade of blue and a drop or two of purple to some blue to make yet another shade! I hope that helps. :) :) :)
DeleteCan you share what watercolor paper you use? We tried this today and I don't think our paper really let the paint spread out as much as I would have liked.
ReplyDeleteWe use Strathmore Kids Paint Paper. But any thick watercolor paper should do the trick --- regular computer paper doesn't seem to do as well, but you'll still see the effects from the salt resist. Hope that helps!
DeleteTable salt, but either will work. Sometimes we just mix a bunch of different salts together for fun and it looks really cool!
ReplyDeleteHi! Just wondering if you peeled the hot glue gun snowflakes off after it was dry? Could you reuse them? I'm thinking how to make this idea workable for a group of 20 kids, aged 6-12yrs... Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks! Shelley
ReplyDeleteMaybe? But it might rip the paper. I'd say the easiest way to do it would be to prep them ahead of time with hot glue and pass out the papers with the glue already on there for the kids to do the rest. If you wanted the kids to draw their own you could do it as a 2-day project, but probably safest to just do a simple template and repeat it several times. Hope that helps!
DeleteCould you use a white pastel instead of the glue gun? Do you think you'd get the same effect?
DeleteIt would look pretty different but I think it would still be a lovely art project!
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