Marbleized Paintings {Craft Camp}

Hi folks! Jessica here from scrumdilly-do! I am tickled pink & orange to bring you a wee bit o’ summer fun. I’ve worked with a lot of kiddos in my days and have found that open-ended messy fun is generally always a hit. So break out your splat mats and don those mess-friendly togs and let’s get to it. We’re gonna make some marbleized paintings with shaving cream and kool-aid!

Set up your art-space in a mess friendly zone. When in doubt, outdoors usually work. I used a splat mat on the kitchen table with some newspaper underneath. This can get messy.

Pour each of your packs of unsweetened drink mix into its own container. When selecting your colors/flavors, keep your color mixing rules in mind to keep the whole kit and caboodle from turning brown. I like using shallow bowls as they are a little bit trickier for kiddos to dump. Add a quarter cup of water to each bowl, give it a stir and set aside. You have just made your paint. Smells fruity, doesn’t it?

Next, arm your kiddo(s) with the shaving cream and have them spray a heap into the shallow tray making sure to not mound it up mountain style though if they do, that is cool, they may decide they simply want to play with the foamy fun instead of paint with it. Spread the shaving cream across the pan as if you were evening out a cake batter. You can use a wooden spoon or your hands for this. It gets sticky and messy really fast but the good news is that it is soap so it washed off super fast!

Now it is time to add the “paint”. Have your kiddos dribble, squirt or drip their paint on in splotches. Use a large fork, popsicle stick or chop stick to swirl it all up to create a marbeled effect.

Gently place a sheet of paper directly on top of the colorful mess and gently pat down. Pull your print by gently pulling up from one side and set the paper down onto your covered surface. There will be large pockets of shaving cream stuck to the paper. Allow to sit and cure for a few minutes then use the cardboard or index card to scrape the mess off the paper. You can redeposit the goo to the cookie sheet or rinse in the sink. If you don’t have any excess cardboard, let the shaving cream set a smidge and wipe off with a damp sponge. This may be an even better way to clean it all up. It’s up to you.

Add a bit more shaving cream and paint for each print. Experiment. Try drawing a picture with the shaving cream on top of the colored layers to see a relief print on your paper.

Hang your pretty paintings somewhere happy or turn them into something new. Pinwheels? Bunting? Fortune Tellers? Flags? Fans? There are oodles of possibilities! Don’t forget, the powdered drink mix contains dye that can stain your skin and clothing. My fingers are still orange! So if you have any worries make sure to cover up and use gloves or baggies over the hands, otherwise enjoy the fruity scent in the air and wash hands with soap and water, it should come off after a bath or three. Thank you for playing along and happy camp-fun!

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have a scrumdillyumptious day!

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