creating with a kid- funnel paint pouring

One of my favorite activities to do with kids of any age is pour painting. It's messy, fun and any age can create beautiful results. Around here we like to experiment supplies and techniques and lately we've been loving pour painting WITH A FUNNEL (pretty much any kitchen tool makes painting more fun). Here are (tailored for kids) a few tips in case anyone out there is looking for a fun winter activity.

Before starting any messy process with kids, I recommend just accepting that IT WILL GET MESSY! In my experience, these types of projects are worth the mess because they are a wonderful way to foster creativity. If messes are hard for you to manage, just take extra time to prep- cover a table and the floor in drop clothes.

I also find that it helps to lay out ground rules before the mess begins (wash hands when finished, you will not get in trouble if paint spills, let an adult know so you can work together to clean up, give a time limit for mess making, ect). While I am not a big fan of rules when it comes to creativity, they are helpful when working with toddlers & younger kiddos.

For this project, we used funnels and a variety of paint. For the pouring process, your paint needs to be fluid. You can use water, ModPodge or puring medium to create fluid paint. 

There are a variety of recipes and supplies but with kids you can keep it pretty simple with watered down paint. I let Lucy use my "adult supplies" and we used a mixture of paint, water and Liquitex pouring medium.

We mixed up a bunch of colors and then I let Lucy go wild. First she poured a few different colors in her funnel and then drizzled it all over a canvas. She worked over the top of it with lots of layers of with her funnel and lots of moving her surface around.

Using a pour painting, using a funnel or unique kitchen tools really encourages getting creative with movement and expression- a great alternative to painting with a brush!

This process is one that has always captured Lucy's attention for hours and it makes for a great indoor activity and the results are amazing!

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