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Watercolor fun you can take with you! I’m so excited about this simple little idea! These homemade just-add-water paint pages make it easy to say “yes” to painting, and we can take them on hikes or picnics! All you need is some watercolor paper and tubes of watercolor paint. I used KOI Watercolors
I just opened the tube of paint and put a little dot of each color on the pages. Then let the paint sit to dry.
After a couple hours the dots had hardened up nicely. Yesterday afternoon we gave them a try and we were delighted at how well they worked!
Well, disclaimer: James and I were delighted. Leland (3) kept painting with them and yet, kept saying whining, “It’s not wooooorking.” I am guessing he was just hoping for more of the goopy painting experience he’s used to.
But *most* of those present thought it worked quite well.
Here are a few of the cards we made yesterday (including the lower left one that Leland made against all odds 
).
More possibilities-
- Put some ready-to-paint dots in your art journal or garden journal! I made some ready to paint pages for this week’s garden journaling.
- Draw a line or letter in permanent marker as a painting start.
- Put your dots on other places on the page and see what that inspires.
Have fun painting!
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
This is brilliant! The perfect mess-free way to paint! I am totally posting this to my facebook wall later tomorrow! Wish you had linked it up to my It’s Playtime linky so I could feature you this week. My post was all about different ways to paint with our kiddos
Lol, it would have fit right in. I linked with my Garden Jounral page- I
didn’t have this post up yet at the time, oh well. I linked it to the new
It’s Playtime linky anyhow- thanks for the compliment; I really am excited
about these silly little paint pages!
What a terrific idea!!
What a great idea, now I need to get some watercolors like that!
You are so clever!! And I’m excited because I actually own watercolor paints in a tube!
just want to make sure before I go out & buy the paint – what kind are you recommending? Will any kind do?
Well, I had some tubes of watercolor paint in my cupboard and grabbed those,
I think nearly any tubes of watercolor would work- they all dry down hard
once they’re out of the tube. Generally I like to get high quality art
products when I purchase them so we can really enjoy using them…whatever
you buy will last you for ages, so get colors you like
I just found your blog for the first time and have been looking over all your wonderful posts. I love this one! So wonderful. I never would have thought of this. Thanks for the inspiration!
What a great idea. I’m homeschooling my preschooler this year and will be adding these to the activity grab and go bag!
Such a wonderful idea – not only for kids!
I just stumbled upon your blog (via Tinkerlab on fb) and this is the first post I read and I already know I am going to LOVE going through all your past posts and following your future ones!
These are just awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this.
This is brilliant, so clever! I’m definitely making some of those!
Good idea comes while doing “normal” things!
Love it very much, Angelique
Love this idea!
You could make uncrafty Mum crafty with these awesome suggestions. I will give these a go! Thanks for sharing your clever ideas x
Great idea! Love it! Most kids do enjoy tempera paint better (like your son said), but still a wonderful idea !
Thanks for the compliments, everyone. Happy painting to you
We made some of these this week and we love them! Super fun, portable, and inexpensive!
I found you via pinterest. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!
Alissa, I just found this post on pinterest! I LOVE it!! This would be fun for kids of ALL ages.
I think this is a great idea, but I would like to pass on a bit of advice: be sure your liquid watercolors don’t contain any harsh pigments such as cadmium or colbalt – these are extremely harmful pigments that can be absorbed through the skin. Some older paints and imported paints don’t label their products with these pigments.
Thanks Cassie- I’m thinking I might do a follow up post about that, as well as about watercolor paints in tube in general. I’ve had some moms comment that they didn’t realize one could even buy liquid watercolors.
Amazing idea! We just bought some watercolor tubes recently, we’ll have to try this for sure!
Alissa, I tried and the dots of paint elt off the paper when they dried
Do you have any idea why this could happen? Thanks 
Alissa, I tried and the dots of paint felt off the paper when they dried
Do you have any idea why this could happen? Thanks 
@Reina- I’m not sure- My guess would be either the paper was too slick (I used some midgrade watercolor paper. It had a bit of “tooth” to it.) Or perhaps from putting too thick of paint dots? My dots were not really clumps; a pretty small amount of paint.
Perfect birthday present for small children!!!! That and a paint smock! Love this idea and I thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks Alissa
I also used watercolor paper so I guess I was toooooo excited putting paint on it. We will give it a try again in the weekend 
I hope it works this time! Have a great weekend
What kind of paint did you use?
Would tempera work?
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