Salt and Watercolor painting

We finally got a decent snow here in Northern Indiana, and it felt great! So I thought since L is still on break for a little bit longer, why not fit in some crafts! We were way too busy during the month of December to do much, but I think Jan. will be a bit better. This is one of those crafts that has been floating around pinterest, and that I have heard about for sometime now. Now was the perfect time to do it. I found the basic step by step at Housing a Forest.

Supplies needed:
heavier paper (we used sketch pad paper)
Elmer's glue
A can of table salt (found at the dollar store!)
watercolors (either liquid or regular)
small paintbrushes
baking sheet
paper towels
small bowls of water

I set this all up on our kitchen table. I had a sheet of paper, brush, watercolors, paper towel (for drying off brush in between colors), small bowl of water (for cleaning brush in between colors), and glue for each person doing the craft. I showed the kids how to lightly squeeze the glue and to "draw" a picture on the paper. When we were done drawing, we put each paper, one at a time, on the baking sheet. I let the kids shake the salt all over their drawings, and then shake the extra off the page. I made sure to have the watercolors prepared and ready to go. Adam suggested to make it easier, to spoon a good amount of water into each color to make it easier, and it really did! I showed the kids that all they had to do was fill their brush up with paint, and VERY lightly touch it to the salt. The salt then grabbed the paint, and spread it out. I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw that happen for the first time. There were lots of yells of, "wow", and "oh man"! Now if you are doing this with older kids you can use this as a science experiment as well, and talk about why and how the salt carries the water. But since mine were a little too little for that, we skipped it. When you are all done, find a nice place out of the way to let them dry. In our house it took almost 1 whole day. We now have them hanging on the wall by our back window and it seems to just brighten the whole room!

Drawing out our design

D shaking the salt on her picture

Starting the paint on mine

D loves color, so hers is very rainbow colored!

L was trying to make sure his colors were very true to life. The sky had to be blue, the boy had to be peach. He even mixed his yellow and orange to get the right color.

D's picture. A pumpkin in the grass

L's blue sky

 

Our finished pages on the wall.