My family has been on a big space kick, ever since we visited the Kennedy Space Center this winter. My kids already loved stargazing, but our visit took things to the next level. Now we are deep into an outer space exploration.

Naturally, we’ve done lots of art exploration to go along with this newfound interest and painting these planets was easily one of our favorite space art projects.

If you’ve never added rubbing alcohol to a watercolor picture, you’ve got to try it! The alcohol resists the water, creating dots and swirls. It makes for a perfect planet-painting technique.

How to Paint Watercolor Planets with Rubbing Alcohol

MATERIALS

• Watercolor paper (we really like OOLY’s circular watercolor paper but you can also use regular watercolor paper and cut it into circles)
• Watercolor paints (you can use liquid watercolors or a palette)
• Droppers and small jars
• Rubbing alcohol

Once you’ve added as many drops of rubbing alcohol to your planet as you like, set it aside to dry and make another!

We made planets of all sizes and colors until we ran out of round paper. This is one of our favorite watercolor techniques and certainly our favorite way to paint planets!

More Watercolor Activities for Kids

• How to Do Plastic Wrap Painting with Watercolors
• How to Do Watercolor Painting with Salt
• 11 Fun Watercolor Ideas for Kids
• How to Make Starry Night Art Cards
• 5 Easy Watercolor Ideas Using Resist Techniques
• The Best Space Art Ideas for Kids

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Updated April 2024

Watercolors are easily one of our top favorite art materials for little kids! We use liquid watercolors and watercolor palettes. We also love these tempera paint pods that act like a watercolor (they’re pricey but the pods are large and last forever!).

See also: The Best Paints for Kids

For paper, we like watercolor paper, which is thick and doesn’t warp with the watercolors. If you want to get fancy, try this circular pad of watercolor paper! You can also use mat board remnants from frame shops (free!) or the matte side of poster board (super cheap).

See also: The BEST Paper for Kids Art

Here are some of our very favorite watercolor craft ideas for kids! We hope you try them all!

Watercolor Ideas for Kids

1. Geometric Watercolor Art

Geometric watercolor art is beautiful and easy to make with this saran wrap technique. Simply paint with watercolors, then scrunch saran wrap up on top of wet paint. Let dry and see your unique geometric designs!

2. Paint Watercolor Planets with Rubbing Alcohol

Learn how to use paints and rubbing alcohol to make beautiful watercolor planets. Create your own mini universe with this fun art activity!

3. Painting Lace

Learn how to paint lace with kids using liquid watercolors. Then turn the colorful lace into a beautiful wall hanging!

4. Paint a Watercolor Geode

Learn how to paint a watercolor geode in 5 easy steps! A wonderful watercolor painting activity to pair with learning about geodes and rocks.

5. Make Flowers with Paper Plates

Create 3D watercolor flowers using paper plates with a few things you likely have at home right now. Find out how to cut and paint giant flowers for a fun and relaxing watercolor art activity for kids.

6. Try Watercolor Painting with Salt

Get a starry night sky effect by painting with watercolors and salt. This easy watercolor technique produces a beautiful star-studded sky.

7. Make These Amazing Yayoi Kusama Inspired Dot Paintings

Create amazing and colorful dot paintings inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. You can use a variety of art materials with this project, including watercolors.

8. Watercolor Crayon Resist on Canvas

We love wax resist painting and this one is especially fun! Watch crayons melt on a heated canvas for a vibrant piece of artwork.

9. Paint Butterflies with Liquid Watercolors

How to paint butterflies with liquid watercolors using the rubbing alcohol technique for the decorations on the butterfly wings. This is a fun art idea for kids of all ages, and adults, too!

10. Draw Abstract Self Portraits

Learn how to draw abstract self-portraits for kids in 6 simple steps! Then paint with watercolors to make the portraits pop!

11. DIY Paper Twirlers

These colorful paper twirlers are easy to make and mesmerizing to watch! Make and decorate your own beautiful paper twirlers using the watercolor resist painting technique.

What do you think? Which of these fun watercolor ideas will you try?

More Watercolor Ideas for Kids

• 12 Watercolor Art Ideas for Kids (with a Printable Guide!)
• 6 Easy Watercolor Ideas Using Resist Techniques
• 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids
• How to Paint Watercolor Flowers for Kids
• How to Paint Watercolor with Markers
• How to Make Pointillism Art with Cotton Swabs

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Updated April 2024

There is so much you can do with a simple watercolor palette! From watercolor resist art and paper plate flowers to butterfly symmetry prints and starry night sky art, just about any watercolor technique or activity can be done with the simplest of watercolor paint sets.

First, we’ll share the materials you’ll need to get started (not many!) and a video overview of the ideas.  And don’t forget to download the free printable that you can print out!

MATERIALS

• A watercolor paint set*
• Paint brushes and a cup of water
• Sturdy art paper or watercolor paper
• Drawing tools such as crayons, oil pastels, pens, or pencils (depending on the activity)
• You may want something to protect your work surface

*In the video, we show a couple of our favorite Faber-Castell watercolor paint sets, the Connector Paint Box Watercolor Set and Watercolor Paint Set with Brush. For more of our paint recommendations, check out: The Best Paints for Kids

Watch the video above to see these 12 watercolor art projects in action or head straight to the photos and instructions below.

12 Watercolor Art Ideas

1. Watercolor Dot Art

Create pointillism-inspired dot art with cotton swabs and watercolor paint. You can create images (such as flowers, butterflies, cars, or faces), abstract art, or make a dot-to-dot picture for a friend or sibling to complete.

2. The Relaxing Scribble Art Activity

Use a crayon or oil pastel to draw big looping scribbles all over your paper. Fill in some sections with color from crayons or oil pastels and then paint the rest with watercolors.

We love to do this while listening to audio books!

3. Watercolor Doodle Flowers

Use watercolor dots as the starting point for playful doodled flowers. Paint dots then add designs to cut out or create your own stickers!

4. Create the Starry Night Sky Effect with salt

Sprinkle a little salt over a still-wet watercolor painting for a beautiful starry night sky or mottled effect. The salt absorbs the water in the watercolor paint, leaving white spots in some areas and concentrated pigment in others.

5. The Watercolor Resist Technique

Use crayons or oil pastels to draw a picture (abstract or realistic – anything goes!), then paint over the drawing with watercolor paints. The waxy crayons or oil pastels will resist the water-based watercolors, creating a simple but almost magical effect.

6. Watercolor Butterfly Symmetry Prints

Create beautiful, symmetrical butterfly wings with translucent watercolor paint. Fold a piece of paper in half, open back up, and draw the body and wings of a butterfly with a crayon or oil pastel. Now use a lot of wet watercolor paint to paint one side of the butterfly. Press the other side of the paper to the wet paint, and open to reveal your symmetrical butterfly print!

7. Make Flowers with Paper Plates

To make these paper plate flowers, inspired by Pink Stripey Socks, cut a few flower shapes from paper plates in decreasing sizes and staple or glue them together in the center. Paint your flowers with watercolor paint. You can also embellish them with additional doodles and drawings with markers or chalk markers after they dry.

8. Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Shapes

Experiment with the wet-on-wet watercolor technique by using cookie cutters!

Start by setting a cookie cutter on top of your paper. Paint the area inside the cookie cutter with just water. Then dip the paintbrush into watercolor paint and add color to the wet paper inside the cookie cutter. Watch as the color spreads around the water. Dip your paint brush into a different color and repeat. Leave the cookie cutter in place and let your painted shape dry.

9. The Watercolor + Cling Wrap Technique

Cover a wet watercolor painting with gently scrunched up cling wrap and let dry overnight for an amazing geometric effect. The cling wrap forces the watercolor paint to concentrate where the plastic touches the paper creating intricate geometric designs.

10. Raised Salt Painting

For raised salt painting, a favorite kids’ art activity, draw a picture or make a squiggle design with a bottle of glue. Then cover the glue lines completely with salt and tap off the extra salt. Saturate your paint brush with watercolor paint and lightly touch to the salt-covered glue lines. Watch as the color magically travels along the salt + glue!

11. Make Faux Stained-Glass Paintings

Create a stained-glass art effect with a black glue “lead” design filled in with colorful translucent watercolors. Mix a tablespoon or so of black tempera or acrylic paint into a half-empty bottle of glue, replace the cap, and shake well. Squeeze out the black glue to draw a picture on your paper. Once it’s completely dry, paint in the sections with watercolor paint.

12. Compass Painting with Watercolors

Use a compass to paint watercolor circles of different sizes! Replace the pencil in a traditional compass with a small paintbrush (we broke our paint brush in half to make it easier to use). Then dip the brush end in paint to make lots of circles all over your paper.

So, there you have it! A dozen awesome watercolor art activities for kids of all ages! Try one or do them all!

We even created a printable guide so you can keep these ideas handy on your fridge or keep in your art space. Enter your email to have one sent directly to you for free! If you missed it, clear your cookies & refresh this page!

More Watercolor Art Ideas for Kids

• 6 Easy Watercolor Ideas Using Resist Techniques
• 11 Fun Watercolor Craft Ideas for Kids
• 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids
• How to Paint Watercolor Flowers for Kids
• How to Paint Watercolor with Markers
• How to Make Pointillism Art with Cotton Swabs

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Updated April 2024

We love painting with watercolors, and of all the different watercolor techniques, painting with watercolors and salt is the one we return to the most.

Why? It’s simple. Sprinkling salt over your painting is a fun extra step for kids. And the results can be dramatic.

Plus, it’s just perfect for creating a starry night sky! It’s one of our favorite space art activities for that very reason.

Here’s a quick video showing how to paint a night sky with the watercolors and salt. And keep scrolling for step-by-step instructions!

Watercolor Painting with Salt

MATERIALS

• Watercolor paper or card stock
• Crayons (optional)
• Watercolor paint*
• Paint brush
• Salt

*We like to use liquid watercolor paint when painting with watercolors and salt, as the technique requires extra water. However, you can use a palette of dried watercolors if you are mindful of using extra water.

Now you can admire and display or gift!

More Watercolor Painting Ideas

• 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids
• 6 Easy Watercolor Ideas Using Resist Techniques
• 12 Watercolor Art Ideas for Kids
• How to Make Sticker Resist Artwork with Tape
• How to Do Watercolor Resist Crayon Art
• How to Make Sticker Resist Art Cards

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Updated April 2024

This geometric watercolor art is an activity we first tried years ago. We’ve done it many times of the years, and always love the way our paintings turn out.

This is also a really cool way to make constellations and has become a favorite space art project.

It’s very simple: you paint with watercolors and then place scrunched up plastic wrap on the wet paint. The plastic wrap makes the paint dry in really cool geometric designs. You can extend the activity by doodling on and tracing the angled lines with metallic Sharpies or chalk markers.

Plastic Wrap Painting

MATERIALS

• Watercolor paper (or poster board or card stock)
• Watercolor paint
• Saran Wrap (Cling wrap, plastic wrap…)
• Metallic Sharpies, pens, or chalk markers

We love how these paintings look! We especially like the effect of the silver metallic Sharpies and the chalk markers.

More Fun Watercolor Ideas to Try

• 12 Awesome Watercolor Art Activities for Kids (+ A Free Printable Guide!)
• 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids to Experiment With
• 5 Watercolor Resist Techniques to Try
• Watercolor Painting Ideas about Space
• How to Paint Butterflies with Liquid Watercolors
• How to Paint a Watercolor Geode

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Updated March 2024

Watercolor doodle flowers are a fun and relaxing watercolor art activity for kids! We think these are great to create alone or with family & friends winding down together.

Here at The Artful Parent, we value process art (open-ended activities that allow kids to explore through art). This activity fits the bill as each child’s artwork will look different. And it’s a great one to revisit over and over again.

If you’re looking for more awesome watercolor activities for kids, try 12 Awesome Watercolor Art Activities for Kids.

How to Paint Watercolor Flowers

MATERIALS

• Watercolor paint palette
• Brushes and water
• Paper
• Glue
• Crayons, oil pastels or colored pencils (for added embellishments)

Now don’t let the fun stop here! Below are a few art ideas we think your kids will enjoy. If you try one, please tag us on Instagram (#theartfulparent). We really enjoy seeing your family’s arts & crafts projects!

More Watercolor Painting Ideas for Kids

• How to Make Giant 3D Watercolor Flowers with Paper Plates
• Create Gorgeous & Abstract Scribble Drawings with Watercolors
• DIY Geometric Watercolor Art with the Saran Wrap Technique
• Shadow Art for Kids: Tracing the Light
• Glue Art on Canvas with Watercolors

Want even more creative ideas?

Check out our Spring Creativity pack!

Let creativity blossom with this fun bundle of art activities perfect for Spring!! This 40-page printable eBook is full of coloring pages, drawing prompts, games, and more!

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Updated March 2024

We are big into butterflies right now. We’ve painted them using the blot art technique, and we’ve painted watercolor butterflies using the rubbing alcohol technique. And we’ve raised butterflies from caterpillars!

For a recent art project, we created a butterfly mobile that now flutters in the cross-breeze of our windows. We used watercolors over a white oil pastel-resist design for the wings, with clothespins as an optional addition for the bodies.

Watercolor Painting Butterfly Mobiles

MATERIALS

• Watercolor paints or liquid watercolors
• Watercolor paper
• Scissors
• White or light-colored oil pastels or crayons
• Old fashioned wooden clothespins
• Glue
• Thread

This is a sweet way to paint butterflies and add a little bit of spring decor to your home!

More Butterfly Art Activities for Kids

• How to Paint Butterflies for Kids
• How to Paint Butterflies with Watercolors
• How to Make DIY Wings for Kids
• A Marbled Paper Plate Butterfly Craft
• String Print Butterfly Art Project

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Updated March 2024

One of our favorite watercolor techniques is rubbing alcohol on watercolor paint.

We don’t use it as much as salt on watercolors, just because it’s a bit more of a commitment and a tad smelly. But the rubbing alcohol has such a dramatic effect on the wet watercolor paint, repelling it and leaving a perfect, lighter circle wherever we drop it. It’s mesmerizing!

This watercolor technique is perfect to create patterns on butterfly wings. We also love to use it to make bubbles in water, stars in the night sky, decorations on hearts and flowers, and even some abstract art.

Here’s a brief video showing the rubbing alcohol technique in action as we painted watercolor butterflies and other artworks.

Watercolor Butterflies for Kids

MATERIALS

• Liquid watercolors*
• Paint brushes
• Watercolor paper or card stock
• Rubbing alcohol (you can get this for super cheap at the grocery store or drug store)
• Droppers or pipettes

*You can also use watercolor cakes, but if so, be extra generous with the water so that the paint is pretty liquid.

Sometimes the watercolors all bleed together a bit when using wet on wet watercolor like this, which can look really cool.

You can use this rubbing alcohol technique to create all kinds of beautiful effects on your paper: tentacles on an octopus, bubbles in water, a night sky, abstract art, or anything else you like! You and your children will want to keep coming back to this fun watercolor option!

Want another fun butterfly painting idea? Try Butterfly Symmetry Paintings!

More Watercolor Ideas for Kids

• 7 Watercolor Techniques for Kids
• 12 Awesome Watercolor Art Activities for Kids (+ A Free Printable Guide!)
• 6 Amazing Watercolor Resist Techniques To Try With Kids

Want even more creative ideas?

Check out our Spring Creativity pack!

Let creativity blossom with this fun bundle of art activities perfect for Spring!! This 40-page printable eBook is full of coloring pages, drawing prompts, games, and more!

SHOP NOW

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Updated August 2023

After my children were born, I started experimenting with all kinds of activities and invitations to distract them, engage them, and secretly buy myself some time to do other things around the house, or maybe just drink a cup of tea in peace.

I would often try to set up simple invitations to create or explore. And I found that not only did they really enjoy them, but it was a fun and playful way to work on certain skills. 

Basically, an invitation to create is both an opportunity to entice a child to make art as well as an opportunity to introduce a new material, technique, or activity. 

Here are a few simple after school art invitations for school aged kids that are on my favorite list. These are ones my kids have loved, and I hope yours will too.

Keep in mind that you can make these after-school art invitations as simple or complex as you wish; you can always add more materials or work around what you have at home to make it easy to set up in less than 5 minutes.

After School Art Invitations

MATERIALS (These are all the materials needed for these 5 activities)

• white paper
• white sticker paper
• markers
• liquid watercolors or watercolor palette
• stamp pads
• string
• oil pastels
• playdough
• air dry clay

1. Sticker Making

This is one of our all-time favorites! We’ve been making stickers for years and the boys still love it.

All you need is white sticker paper (or white sticky labels) and markers.  I’ve collected stamps over the years, so we’ll use those for extra fun.  But you don’t really need these.

They can start by drawing on the white side of the paper or label (make sure they are not drawing on the sticky side). Another fun option is to stamp and color their stamp outlines and then cut out their own sticker creations. I guarantee you at least an hour or more of fun!

2. Make Your Own Gift Tags

This is another favorite as kids love the idea of working on a smaller format.

I pre-cut a bunch of small squares and rectangles (about 3×4 or 4x4in) out of sturdy white paper and set it out on the table next to markers and/or watercolors and let them go to town. If you have stickers, you can set those out, too.

My kids have been making and giving these for years and they enjoy it so much. I often join in the process as I find it to be relaxing and fun.

3. Watercolors & Oil Pastels

Don’t be afraid to bring some paint into the game! Watercolors are washable and easy to clean up. And once you mix them with oil pastels the effect is super cool because the oil pastels resist the paint, and the colors pop out really nicely. You can do this with nice watercolor paper or just white cardboard.

This is a relaxing activity, perfect to wind down after a hectic school day. 

4. Observational Drawings

I know the name sounds fancy, but I promise this is really fun and easy to set up. I’ve done it with lots of different things.

Sometimes I use simple stuff I have around the house, like flowers, toys or fruits. When I’m feeling inspired, I bring in something more fun like cupcakes or donuts and set them right in the middle of the table next to paper, markers, or any kind of paint you have.

And then I ask the boys try and focus on the objects (or food) on the table and draw/paint them from observation. 

5. Playdough or Clay Creations

Almost every household has some playdough lying around so this is an easy one to set up. My kids (age 7 & 9) prefer clay over playdough, so I will also do this with air dry clay.

Set out either the playdough or the clay next to some tools (you can use things you have at home like old toothbrushes, knives, toothpicks, rollers, scissors, etc.). Add in some pasta, or other loose parts (things such as lids, buttons, sticks, nails, small rocks, etc.) and let them do the rest!

Your kids will come up with some pretty creative pieces, I promise!

I hope you give these invitations a try! Like I said, you can make them as easy or “fancy” as you desire! But I suggest keeping it simple so it’s something you feel comfortable doing often.

I usually try to set up before the kids get home from school and that way, they can go right to it while they have a snack and unwind from their day.  These are just a few ideas, but as you start doing it, you will come up with your very own, based on the things you have at home.

More Art Invitations for Kids

• How to Set Up Creative Invitations for Kids
• Why I Like Morning Invitations with My Kids
• 10 Open-Ended Art Invitations that Bring Out Kids’ Creativity
• 5 Low Mess Creative Activities for Kids
• The Art of Strewing
• 11 Creative Activities for Kids

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Updated March 2024

Blow painting with straws is one of those simple art activities that you can do over and over again and enjoy it every time and get a different result every time.

Here’s a video showing blow painting with straws in action and keep scrolling for step-by-step instructions.

It’s one of our Best Art Ideas for Kids and when you’ve tried it, you’ll understand why!

It’s kind of funny to watch, super satisfying to do, and the results are always interesting.

Blow Painting with Straws

MATERIALS

• Tag board, card stock, or other heavy paper
• Liquid watercolor paint*
• Dropper or pipette
• Drinking straws

*If you don’t have liquid watercolor paint, you can use watered-down food coloring or watered-down tempera paint.

It is so fun to watch the colors run together and mix. After the paint dries, you can display your artwork or use it to make cards, wrapping paper, collage papers for other art, or more.

More Painting Ideas for Kids

• 7 Fun Painting Ideas for Kids
• How to do Splatter Painting with Kids
• Painting with Wheels for Kids
• How to Do Marble Painting for Kids
• How to do Splat Painting for Kids
• How to Do Scrape Painting

Want even more creative ideas?

Check out our Artful Parent Starter Pack!

Engage your kids through art and creativity with this printable booklet where you’ll find all of our best tips, tricks, and ideas for getting started on your artful parenting journey!

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