Bubble Wrap Prints

If your kids are like mine, they love popping bubble wrap. But there are lots of other great things you and the kids can do with bubble wrap.  Have you ever thought of using it to make a work of art?  Well you can.  Trust me, if my 3 year olds can make a work of art, you can too.  You will need some simple materials:  bubble wrap, paint and a tray.  Simple enough?  If you don't have any bubble wrap maybe this is an excuse to order something.  "I didn't want to order that vase.  I needed the bubble wrap for the children's artwork!"  Or you can just buy it at an office supply/postal store.  But I love frugal crafts, so when I get some bubble wrap I save it for future art projects.

I was lucky enough to have two kinds of bubble wrap at home.  Eat your heart out!  I had your normal run of the mill bubble wrap, but I also happened to have some BIG bubble wrap with giant circles.  So it was nice to have that variety.  But this will be a fun project no matter what kind of bubble wrap you have.  These are the two different types we used.

I then cut the bubble wrap so that it was a little smaller than the tray.  Next, I let the kids squirt a few different colors of paint on the tray.  The kids found this fun to do.  I mixed the colors with a spoon so I would have more even coverage which you can see on the top tray.  It would be interesting to do some prints without spreading it out like on the bottom tray in the photo.

I helped the girls place the bubble wrap on top of the paint on the tray, and had them press down on it to get it fully covered in paint.  You'll probably want to help them with the next part, which involves peeling the paint covered bubble wrap off the tray and placing it, paint side down, on a piece of paper.  You might want to be careful when you press the bubble wrap on the paper not to move it around too much or the impression will be smudged.  However, if you are like me, this isn't such a big deal since 3 year olds are pretty happy even if the impression isn't perfect.  I'm more concerned with the process and not the product when it comes to kids art.

Now comes the really fun part!  It's time to lift the bubble wrap off the paper and see what you have made.  You can see the delight on B's face as she unveils her creation.  

Check out our art gallery.  This was made with the regular bubble wrap.

And this was created with our giant bubble wrap.

Let me tell you how well my girls know me.  When we finished with the bubble wrap, A noticed that we still had some paint left in the tray.  She asked if we could have some paper to make prints.  That is exactly what I was thinking!  Love my kids!  This time we placed some copy paper on top of the paint on the trays and smashed and moved it around.  The girls kept asking for more paper and we did this until we ran out of paint on the tray.

So next time you get a package, save the bubble wrap and create some art with your little ones.  Well, that's a wrap!  I just had to get that in there.  

For more great bubble wrap activities, check out The Honorable Mention Preschool Blog where they have a variation of this activity along with some other fun ideas for using extra bubble wrap. 

I have linked this post to  the Classified Mom Sunday Showcase.  I link up to some of these great blogs.