Watercolor Art You Can't Resist

Today I will be sharing a kids activity that I did as a guest post for Come Together Kids.  Incase you missed it, it's an easy and inexpensive art project that is fun for kids of all ages.

This is one I re-purposed from my teaching days called "Watercolor Tape Resist".  Years ago, when I did this project with elementary-aged kids, I used blue painter's tape.  I would recommend this to you.  I didn't have any blue painters tape the day I wanted to do this, so I improvised and used masking tape.  I figured maybe it would stick a little more but it wouldn't be too bad.  It stuck a lot!  But it wasn't too bad.  If you plan on using these as art, you would want to use the painter's tape for sure.  But for my purposes, the masking tape worked, though it tore the top layer off of some of the paper.

Supplies you will need: 

• White paper (I just used copy paper)
•  Tape 
• Watercolor paints 
• Brush
• Water  

Before the activity, you will want to use your tape to make whatever shapes or designs you wish on the paper.  I started out with a triangle and square and then moved on to some lines, and  finally my favorite, the checkerboard pattern.  Don't worry about being too exact with any of these.  The end result will be cool no matter how straight the lines or perfect the shape.  I promise!

I gave the kids the taped paper and some watercolors and encouraged them to to paint over the tape.  I tried to explain that when the paint dried we would peel the tape off and see the design underneath, but I am not sure if the girls got that at all.  They just had fun in the whole process of painting on the tape.   A little background for Come Together Kids readers: my twins are total opposites.  "A" is the more of a follow the rules type  while "B" is a free spirit who likes to do her own thing.  As an example,  here is "A" carefully painting over her shapes. 

"B" had lots of fun painting her shapes.  So much fun that she did not want to stop after she was done.  All you can do with "B" is try and encourage her.  If she senses that you do not want her to do something then she will dig in her heels and do it more.  Can any of you relate?  Anyway, I normally never want to shut down my kid's creativity, but "B" kept on painting the same spot on the paper over and over again and I knew that soon a hole would form in the paper.  I asked her if she wanted to paint a new paper but she was adamant and kept working on her shapes.

If I have learned anything in my three years as "B's" mom it's that sometimes it's better to let her do her own thing in her own time.  After a little longer, she was done painting her shapes.  Here are the results, holes and all.

I love how you can see the girls' different approaches to art (and possibly life!) in their work.  As they painted their tape lines, you can see that "A" was careful to paint her entire paper while "B" was just interested in painting right over the tape. 

"A" working on her checkerboard pattern.

I just love the finished "tape resist" artwork!  I mentioned earlier that it was tricky to get the regular masking tape off in spots and I would use painter's tape in the future.  You can't see it in the photos, but in a couple of spots a layer of paper was taken off with the tape.  But you live and learn right?

I am going to have so much fun with this in the future.  Think of this project as a jumping off point.  There are so many possibilities about what you can do with this technique.  You can change it up in many ways depending on the age of the child.  I have seen people do their child's name in tape so when they peeled it off they had a pretty name painting.  You can do various shapes, letters, numbers, and patterns depending on what you are teaching and learning.  Experiment! You are only limited by your imagination.  And your lack of painter's tape. 

Linking to - Sunday: Flaming Toes, Seasonal Sundays, Sunday Showcase, No Time For Flashcards, Sundae Scoop,  Monday: Made By Little Hands, Making the World Cuter, Motivate Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Embellishing Life, What I Whipped Up, Hey Mom, Look What I Did