Painting with Rubber Band Paintbrushes

I am so excited to announce that I will be joining Crystal from Growing a Jeweled Rose and Tammy from Housing a Forest in their Paint and Play series. Tammy and Crystal have been doing a great job with this series where each week they share ideas for getting creative with your kids using paint. The challenge this week was to make our own paintbrushes. Our paintbrushes were created using a common office supply. You'll be surprised how easy they are to make and how much fun we had Painting with Rubber Band Paintbrushes. 

If you would like to purchase the items we used for this activity, affiliate links are provided below.

You will need:

• Rubber bands (we used 14 per brush)
• Masking tape
• Wooden dowels (ours were 3/16")

I used two types of rubber bands - thicker and thinner - to create a thick brush and a thin brush. I gathered 14 rubber bands and cut them in half.

Then I taped them around one end of a dowel using masking tape. Make sure to do this as close to the edge of the dowel as you can so the rubber bands can bend and move while painting.

I set up an easel with paper, paint and our rubber band brushes. 

Since the "bristles" on these brushes are longer and floppier than normal paint brushes, the curves and patterns they leave in paint will be different. 

They also hold quite a bit of paint as opposed to a normal brush.

My daughter preferred the patterns made by the thicker rubber bands. I was surprised how easy these were for the kids to paint with. I had been concerned that pieces of rubber band would come out as the girls painted, but luckily I secured them tightly so the brushes held up through three kids and multiple paintings.

We decided to try using the brushes in a different way. My daughter dipped her brush in paint and rolled the dowel between her hands to create splatters on the paper. They splatters also got on her clothes and everywhere else, so make sure your child is smocked or in play clothes when painting. 

My daughter also tried spinning her brush and dropping it on the paper which made large blots that resembled fireworks. 

For more creative paintbrushes be sure to check out Crystal and Tammy's ideas:

                                   

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