“Every child is an artist.”
– Pablo Picasso
It is incredibly important to let children be creative – art is a wonderful form of expression. Our daughter’s artistic experiences began with hand and footprint animals (butterflies, birds, fish, puppies, flowers, caterpillars, etc.). Obviously, her participation in this was limited to providing the hands and feet for painting and stamping.
When our little nugget was 7-months-old I decided to let her create her very first painting! At this point, since she was still so little, and this first-time parent was worried about how she might ingest paint…I decided that we would do a mess-free masterpiece! Don’t get me wrong here…I fully support my daughter’s desire to get messy (you should have seen her at the dinner table at this stage), but what mom doesn’t love an easy clean-up?!?
I had seen several posts on Pinterest sharing this brilliant idea, and so we gave it a whirl.
Mess-Free Painting
Items you will need:
- Storage-size Ziploc bag
- Sheet of paper
- Paint (in colors of your choosing) – and since your child will not come into contact with the paint, during this activity, you can use whatever type of paint you wish.
- Tape
Instructions:
- Slide the paper into the Ziploc bag and squirt some drops of paint in various locations on the paper (we used pink, purple, blue, yellow, and green).
- Seal the bag and tape down the edges of the bag onto the table or high-chair tray where your child will be sitting (this is to make sure the bag stays in place while they are painting.
- Let the creativity begin!
- When they are finished, unseal the bag and pull out the paper (being careful not to tear it), set the paper in a safe spot to dry, and toss the bag and tape in the trash.
- Display the beautiful masterpiece in a prominent location for all to appreciate and admire!
* A simple variation (when your child is old enough to stand) is to for-go the paper and just tape the bag ofΒ paint to a glass door or window and let them have fun squishing the different colors around in their very own stained glass display!
