Art play is a great way to get your kids creating and expressing themselves. We love to try new painting techniques in our home preschool, and found two different way to paint with plastic wrap as part of a month long Painting Challenge. With this challenge, it is all about the process of kids creating art, not a Pinterest perfect finished product. We had so much fun and the kids really loved the reveal after peeling off the plastic wrap at the end. Read below to find out what we did, and visit the Painting Challenge page over at Messy Little Monster to find 34 other fun painting techniques to try with your kids.
The first method we tried was to put the paint on the paper and cover it with plastic wrap. I placed the whole thing on a baking sheet and invited the Pearl Girl (almost 2) to paint. She squished and swirled the paint around while I set up the Bear’s painting station.
We could have just let it dry with the plastic wrap on top, but I decided to let her get messy with it and try finger painting. She wasn’t super wild about the texture on her fingers at first, but got in to it after a bit.
After she painted I covered it with plastic wrap again and asked her to squish the clingy wrap around. We then set it aside to dry.
The Bear painted as he normally would, “making a rainbow”. When he called it done I brought out the cling wrap and covered the painting. I asked him to squish it around. It is best to do this step very quickly so the paint will still be wet.
We let our paintings dry, and then the kids got to pull off the plastic wrap to see their finished paintings. They were thrilled with the results and even danced around waving their paintings. Then mommy tried to make them sit still and pose with the finished product. You can see how well that went below.
The plastic wrap creates an interesting texture and design in the paint, and adds another element of fun to kid art.
How do you get your kids to play creatively? Don’t forget to visit Messy Little Monster to find all the other Painting Challenge techniques to try with your family.
I love the idea on the easel. Looks like you had lots of fun!
Another way you could try, instead of squishing, move the paint so each color is touching another then lightly pat or smooth to slightly blend the colors (too much so will make brown!). Then remove the plastic wrap and let it dry. It gives it a blended pretty cloud like look. Like watercolors!