Labor Day Bubble Painting

Today is a cool and rainy Labor Day. I'm not complaining about the rain, because we sure did need it! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the 61 degrees! Can we keep it? Please?

Best of all... I have the pleasure of having my girls at home today. After breakfast and a little bit of playtime, I asked the girls if they'd like to bubble paint today. YESSS!! But... we needed to pick up toys first. My 2nd grader informed me she'd rather go to school... and that could be arranged...

I found this idea from a couple different sources on the Internet. Some made their own solution with dish soap and some used actual bubble solution. I decided to go with the bubble solution because we have a lot, and I recently learned that bubble solution can go bad.

I washed out some jars from my glass recycling bin
and poured out a little bubble solution into each.

For the paint, I used tube watercolor,
but others have used tempera paint.

I diluted my watercolors in a tad of water and added that
to the bubble solution... trying to get a good bold color.

We tried two different ways of bubble painting... blowing bubbles with the bubble wand directly onto the paper to pop and leave behind color, and blowing air into the bubble solution with a straw to make it bubble up and then placing the paper into the bubbles to pop them. And we found both methods to be effective. 

Method 1:

We put our paper in a cardboard box and blew bubbles
into the box to try to keep bubbles from going
all over the kitchen.

With this method, we had the bubbles popping on the paper to leave color behind, and we had it dripping from the wand leaving behind drops of color, each one a neat effect. This method was actually a little more difficult for the girls because they had a hard time getting the wands to co-operate to blow good bubbles for them.

Method 2:

For this method, use a straw to blow (careful not to
suck!) bubbles in the jar and when the bubbles
begin to overflow...

...place your paper into the bubbles to pop them.

I did discover that with the second method, you could achieve the popped bubble look more effectively if you gently place the paper on top of the jar to pop the bubbles, then gently pull it off without scraping across the jar. My girls were scraping across the jar, and while they were getting color on their paper, and were satisfied with the results, they were not getting the defined bubble pop look.

My second grader's artwork

My pre-schooler's artwork

My artwork. You can see with the one on the left,
the bubbles are more defined. I also allowed mine
to dry between colors to try to keep them from
running together.

Before they painted, I cut a piece of 9x12 water color paper in half, then folded each of those in half so we could use our artwork to make and send cards to their grandmothers.

Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for  your souls. Jeremiah 6:16