Spring is here and the flowers are beginning to bloom, both outside and within the craft room.
Here, we’ve created a beautiful wildflower Spring Meadow Painting for Kids, as the flowers begin to bloom outside with this art project we can bring the beauty of Spring inside.
This Spring Art Project has been put together using a series of creative processes… all without a paintbrush!!!
This is a great project for creativity, with children encouraged to explore different materials, many of which can be commonly found around the home.
Why Painting without a Paintbrush is Good for Kids Creativity:
Kids love to try new things and painting without a paintbrush is exciting; offering new and experimental options that will appeal to inquisitive natures.
Children will engage their problem solving skills to work out how a new material can be used for painting. In doing so, they will also assess how its best used: –
How much paint do they need to apply?
– what happens if they apply too much or too little?
How much force do they need to use to create a print?
– What happens if they press too much or too little?
How can the material be used to paint?
– Can it be splatted, printed or scraped?
The process of experimenting with different materials feeds creativity. Given the freedom to explore and play, children can just create. Make their own decisions. There is no right or wrong way to create and children will soon find their own creative solutions.
Alternative Paintbrush Materials to try:
- Sponge
- Bottle Caps
- Lego Bricks
- Sticks, Leaves & Flowers
- Paper Rolls
- Hands and Feet
- Pasta
- Marbles
- Toy Vehicles
- Apples, Celery and Peppers
- Plastic Whisk
Materials for Spring Meadow Painting for Kids:
White Cardstock
Paint
Black Buttons
Painting Utensils:
Scrap Card
Pencil
Clothes Peg
Pom-Pom
Pipe Cleaner
Dry Pasta
Popsicle Stick
Busy Paintbrush
How to Paint a Spring Meadow without a Paintbrush!
Step 1:
Let’s start with the scrape painting technique.
This is a fun and easy method that’s great for creating landscape backdrops.
Simply add a few drops of paint, along the horizontal edge, directly to the card.
Take a piece of scrap card and drag the paint across the sheet of card, from one side to the other.
Add different shades of blue, mixing the paint as the card is pulled across.
Step 2:
Add a green shade to the bottom of the page and repeat the scrape painting process.
Step 3: Time to explore printing!
We used two materials to create our stems – a pipe- cleaner and Popsicle stick!
The pipe-cleaner leaves an awesome textured print, which is great for thicker stems.
Simply dip the pipe-cleaner directly into the paint and print, pressing down on the pipe-cleaner.
Create prints along the entire page, criss-crossing the stems as your Arty Crafty Kids progress.
Step 4:
Using a different shade of green, we created slimmer ‘grassy’ stems by printing with the edge of a Popsicle stick.
Step 5:
To create the impression of buttercups, we used the splatter technique.
Splat painting doesn’t have to be messy. It can be controlled and contained!
Load a bushy paintbrush with yellow paint. Lower the brush to the card and scrape a popsicle stick against the brush. This will give Arty Crafty Kids more control over the direction of their splats.
Step 6:
Time for Dandelions!
Using the end of an eraser tipped pencil, dip the eraser end into some paint and print in a circular motion to create dandelions.
Step 7:
Hyacinths!
Find an empty thick stem and print around the top with a little finger.
Step 8:
To create our poppies, we placed a pom-pom into a clothes-peg and printed with the pom-pom.
Pom-Poms leave a textured circular shape without being perfectly round – ideal for creating the impression of poppy petals!
Step 9:
Complete the the poppies by sticking black buttons to their centres.
And encourage your Arty Crafty to explore the printing materials further.
Perhaps they can try printing with pasta or scraping paint to form flowers?
The options are endless and like a Spring Meadow filled with wildflowers, I’m sure it will it be beautifully varied and colourful!
This post has been inspired by a feature in the May Edition of the RSPB magazine. We decided to take up the challenge of creating our own Spring Meadow painting for kids by using common craft supplies. Alternatively, natural materials such as sticks and leaves can be used.
More Creative Painting Ideas for Kids:
Bleeding Crepe Paper Art for Kids
Happy Crafting!
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