Thursday, June 12, 2008

Another Concoction: Bubble Painting

Bubble painting actually has a history. My brother and sister probably still remember to this day. As I have mentioned many times, one of the reasons I am so stuck on doing everything with my kids is because my mother was never involved in anything while I was growing up. I couldn't do any activities and my mother didn't attend anything at school growing up.

Except bubble painting...

I think it was third grade when I wrote a book for Young Author's Week, complete with illustrations. I believe it was about a blob with a bug in it's tummy. I SO wish I still had it; it was really cute.

Anyway, every kid that published a book for Young Author's Week got to take part in activities on the following Saturday related to reading. It included a balloon launch back when they were socially acceptable.

And the strange thing...somehow my mom actually VOLUNTEERED. I still don't know how it happened. So my mom was assigned to bubble painting. She used little tiny cups and those tiny milk straws from the school cafeteria. Basically, what we all remember is a big huge mess, but I kept the construction paper from the final product for a super long time.

So, when I saw this in our concoction book, I figured we HAD to try it.

After I went to three stores (didn't make it to the craft store), I gave up trying to find powder tempera and decided to use food dye instead. A word to the wise...when you do this, MAKE THE TRIP TO THE CRAFT STORE to get powder tempera.

So, how do you bubble paint, you may ask.

Once again, remove shirts.

Pour liquid detergent into a bunch of coffee cups and add a different color of dye (or paint) to each one.

Use a LONG straw and blow bubbles until they reach over the top of the cup.




















Then, take paper and set it on top of the bubbles.

























Then we show off our projects






















After ours dried, I cut them out into heart shapes for a Father's Day present for Sunday. They actually turned out a lot prettier after they dried.

Let me know if you try it or have other suggestions for a way to use bubble painting. I saw in the Family Fun magazine yesterday that if you put dye right into a bubble solution from the store and blow it onto paper it makes a similar type of art. I think we'll try that another day.

14 comments:

Deb said...

Huh, I don't think I've ever heard of that. We'll have to try it this summer! :)

Jennifer Kindle said...

you're awesome...I love it...will food coloring work???

Dad of Divas said...

Sounds like a lot of fun...we'll have to try it sometime this summer! Thanks for the idea!

Toni said...

You are really a great mom to do all of these projects with them. I worry too much about messes....

Courtney said...

I think I will try the one from the family fun mag this weekend with my girls. Great idea, thanks for posting.

Amy Plumb said...

Never heard of this, it looks really neat, I mean cool.
I was even a preschool teacher for years, that's bad.
have a great weekend,
Amy

Don Mills Diva said...

I have never seen that before - what great idea!

Melissa said...

That looks like so much fun. I'll keep that in mind for this summer. And great idea for you to cut them for fathers day! Have a great weekend!

Chrissy said...

Looks like fun! We've been wanting to do the bubble painting, too. But we've just had no time lately...maybe soon.

Whitney said...

Sounds so much fun! I love the idea that you did for Father's Day as well:) How bad was the food coloring?

Mom Knows Everything said...

I remember my daughter doing that in kindergarten.

Lindy said...

I've always thought this would be so fun to try -- I need to jump in and just do it this summer :D

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

I really like that idea. I'm not sure if Peanut is ready for it, though. She only drinks through straws. However, she has recently learned to blow through a straw (blow the paper wrapper off) I'm not sure if she would suck or blow the bubbles. The older girls would certainly like it though and we could do it during nap time. Thanks for the idea.

Becky said...

Here I was an art lover during my whole childhood, and an art student in college...and I NEVER heard of that ever...but it sounds FUN!

I'm going to add this to my list of fun stuff to do this summer!

The results of your kiddo's work look kind of water-colorish. Good job!