Messy Monday - Watercolor & Salt Collage

Here's a fun Messy Monday project that is perfect for all age levels - adults included.  Watercolor is a medium that can be difficult to work with, but I try to set my kids up for success with a couple little tweaks.  I broke this project up into two days and combined two ideas - painting and collage.  You could do it all in one day (morning and afternoon) or if you just want to do the painting portion of the project that would work too.

Here's the first step - you'll need:

• watercolor (or thick) paper
• watercolors - I pull out the brown and black so the colors stay vibrant and don't get muddy
• water
• paint brushes
• table salt

Have your children dip their paintbrushes in the water and then dip the paintbrush in the paint color of their choice.  Continue doing this, changing and mixing colors until the paper is filled with paint - use a lot of water.

While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the table salt on the paint and watch the salt absorb the paint.  It's a really fun effect.

 

Let the paint dry.  Once it's dry, shake off the excess salt and cut the paper into shapes.  I cut some of the shapes and my kids cut some of the shapes.  

  

 

Choose a background color and let your children glue down the shapes to make a collage.  This can be abstract or your kids can turn it into an underwater scene, flowers ......

And there you have it....a Watercolor and Salt Collage - perfect for all ages.

Tomorrow is a tutorial on How-To Make an Art Caddy - come on back!