Bubble Blowing Art

My son loved this activity because he could do all the preparation himself and anything involving changing the colour of water is a hit with him. 

Using coloured bubbles to make art.

What you need:

- small cups or pots

- straws

- white card

- washing up liquid

- food colouring mixed with water (you can also dilute paints with water)

The set up.

Step 1: Preparing the 'bubble paints'

One of my favourite things about this activity was that my son could be involved in all the prep work. He loves experimenting with water and colours. First of all my son put a small amount of water in each of the four plastic cups. He then counted out four drops of food colouring and gave it a stir. Then he added a squirt of washing up liquid to each cup.

Adding food colouring to water.

A squirt of washing up liquid.

Step 2 : Blowing the bubbles

WARNING: As there is washing up liquid being used it is important to warn your little one not to suck but only to blow on the straw. If you are worried that your child might suck you can cut a slit in the bend of the straw and it will mean that they can only blow the mixture and not suck it up.

To make the coloured bubbles I simply asked my son to choose a coloured mixture and blow through the straw. He got so excited seeing how high he could make his coloured 'bubble towers'.

The bubbles don't look that bright in colour but when put onto the white card they do show up well.

Blowing bubbles.

Step 3: Making bubble art

Once my son was happy with the size of his 'bubble tower' I gave him an A4 piece of white card and asked him to gently squash the bubbles by placing the card over the top of the bubbles. It might be worth holding onto the cup if your little one is prone to spillages. Repeat this process with each of the colours, using a different part of the card each time.

Squashing the bubbles.

The end product has a lovely mixture of colours and textures, with the bubble marks still visible.

Bubble blowing painting.

Don't just throw away the leftovers.......

As I said, my son loves just playing with colours and water so after he had made his bubble painting I let him have free reign of the colour mixtures and gave him some extra pots for pouring. It was great watching him explore the materials by himself and he asked if we could have a bubble blowing competition to see who could blow the biggest 'bubble tower' (he won of course!). He also had the idea to dip the plastic cups in the bubble mixture and then use it as a stamp by pressing it on a new piece of white card. He enjoyed stamping the different colours that he had created.

Mixing the leftovers.

Bubble blowing competition.

Using the cup as a 'bubble stamper'.