Painting activities stress me out. I start thinking about all that messy paint splattering all over my clothes, my clean floor, and my clean children, and I shudder. I have enough messes to clean up throughout the day, thank you.
Anyone else feel this way?
It took a lot of courage for me to let my toddler use paint, and once we did, it wasn’t as scary as I imagined. Sure, she got herself messy, but for the most part, the paint stayed contained in a general area.
Not splattered on the wall. Not dripping into all crevices of the piano. Not smeared onto the couch cushions.
So if you’re as intimidated as I was about painting, take a deep breath and just try it once.
Maybe outside, or in the bathroom until you can gauge how much you can trust your toddler with paint and a brush.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
How To Set Up Fall Leaves Drip Painting
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For this activity we used:
- a large plastic bin
- baking sheet
- washi tape
- small containers of water
- food coloring
- twisty dropper (or use these if you want less splatter and more drip)
- fall leaf printable (download at the bottom of this post)
The easiest way to set this up is by taping a sheet of paper to a shower wall. Clean up is super-easy: just rinse with water.
We tried this alternate set-up by placing a baking sheet inside a large underbed storage container. This worked perfectly.
Then I taped a printout of a leaf outline onto the baking sheet. We used computer paper because I totally spaced… we SHOULD have used white cardstock or watercolor paper. My bad.
The last thing to do is fill a couple small containers with water and add a few drops of food coloring to it. Unless you have liquid watercolors. Then, definitely use that.
Elena used the twisty dropper from our color mixing activity to drip colored water onto the paper to paint the leaves.
I was going for more of a drippy effect, but our twisty droppers were more like a water gun. Still worked, though and honestly, was probably more fun for Elena.
I just loved how the two colors blended together.
Once she was done painting, I hung the papers up to dry. The papers were SUPER wet, and I tore a little bit at the top when I peeled it off, so be careful
Washi tape, luckily, is really easy to peel off. If you’ve never used it before, it’s kind of like masking tape, but a lot prettier.
Next, we, or more accurately I, cut out the leaves. Elena glued them onto colored construction paper.
She chose colors to match the leaves. Can’t say I’m surprised. The girl loves to match colors.
Your Turn for Fall Leaf Drip Painting
Download the printable fall leaf templates we used by clicking the button below.
Happy Painting!
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!