I love a good, messy art project! When I teach, I love to introduce my students to different art projects using new materials such as clay and paper mache. However, I also love using common supplies, such as paint in a new, and unique way, such as with this art for kids with shaving cream!
This art project is a fun way for kids to create with paint, but without paint brushes or drawing. This project involves shaving cream and lots of drops of paint!
This art project for kids is one that I love doing in my classroom. Kids of all ages will love getting a little messy for this activity. When the project is done, kids will love seeing the unique designs they have made.
Art for Kids with Shaving Cream – Materials
This art project uses simple materials and is easy to set up and create beautiful images. For this art for kids you will need:
- Paint (A Variety of Colors)
- Shaving Cream
- Paper (Cardstock or a heavier paper is best)
- Popsicle Sticks
- Eye Droppers
- Large Container (Cookie Sheet Type Tray Works Well)
If you don’t have eye droppers, you can still do the project. I use the eye droppers because I have them on hand for other projects and my students love using them. The eye droppers also extend the project and gives the kids more hands-on experience creating the art.
Art for Kids with Shaving Cream Set Up
Once you have all of your supplies, start by filling the tray with shaving cream. The surface does not have to be completely smooth, but make sure the surface is covered.
Next, children use eye droppers to drop dots of paint all over the shaving cream. You can provide a rainbow of colors, or just a few colors if you want a certain look (such as red and green for a Christmas themed project). Children can put as few, or as many drops as they want.
Messy Art for Kids
The more drops they put the more colorful the final result will be.
Once the shaving cream is covered with lots of drops, you can use one of the popsicle sticks to drag through the paint to create lines and designs. This is optional. If you do drag through the paint, avoid mixing too much and mixing the colors.
For many kids, creating the design on the shaving cream is as much fun as creating the print on the paper at the end. It’s fun and beautiful to see the designs.
Creating a Print
Once you have all of the paint on the shaving cream, it’s time to create a print! Use a sheet of paper. Preferably slightly thick paper, such as cardstock, works best. The paper will dip into the shaving cream and will get slightly damp, so thicker paper will hold up better.
Take a sheet of paper and gently set it on the shaving cream and paint. Press down onto the paper so that the paint transfers onto the paper and all sides of the paper are in the shaving cream.
Once you’ve pressed down, gently peal the paper out of the shaving cream and paint.
Using a popsicle stick, rub off all of the shaving cream that stuck to the paper. Once the cream is off, the print from the paint will become clear.
You can use another sheet of paper and press it onto the shaving cream and paint without having to add more paint. Keep pressing paper into the shaving cream/paint mixture until the paint is gone.
You can add more paint and more colors as you wish.
Art for Kids – The Result
The end result of this art for kids is beautiful! You can create endless designs and prints with the shaving cream and paint. The paper ends up with a almost marble result.
Once you’ve created lots of prints, let them dry. Once dry, you can use the paper for more art projects, as a background for paper to draw on or virtually anything you can think of.
Kids will love pealing their paper from the shaving cream and seeing the design they create. Every design will be different from the last.
If you want to add something different to the project, you can also add some glitter or sparkles to the shaving cream or paint. When dry it can brush off, but if you add a bit of glue to the paint it helps keep the materials stuck to the paper.
Happy creating!
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