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Have you read the book Purple, Green, and Yellow by Robert Munsch? It was one of my favorites growing up and now my three year old likes it too. There is a line in there, “everyone knows it’s okay to color your fingernails. Even my mother colors her fingernails.” Well that line opened my preschooler’s eyes to fingernail polish. I rarely wear it, so she hadn’t asked about it before. But after realizing what it was, she really wanted some. And now it came in handy for this N is for narwhal craft.
When my daughter started asking for nail polish I started to do some research. According to Mom Loves Best (and lots of other sources) grown up nail polish isn’t a great idea for kids. Instead I ended up buying her Piggy Paint nail polish which is specifically for young kids. We have used it several times since then, but never for a craft before. Needing an N craft supply, I found this fun nail polish marbling technique from Inner Child Fun. I think that our Piggy Paint didn’t work as well as hers did, but it was nice not having to worry about ventilation.
How to Make an N is for Narwhal Craft With Nail Polish
Supplies:
- N shaped narwhal picture (free printable here)
- Container bigger than your piece of paper (either disposable or dedicated to crafts)
- Plastic tablecloth (optional)
- Nail Polish
Nail Polish Marbling:
Before getting started, I printed out an N shaped narwhal picture. Get the free printable here. Then, I cut off all of the excess edges with a paper cutter. I took one of the edges and taped it in a loop onto the back of the page as a dipping handle.
Now that we prepped our paper, it was time to get the marbling supplies ready. I loosely followed Inner Child Fun’s marbling instructions. I have a package of disposable pizza trays that were the perfect size for my daughter to dip her narwhal N in. Even though we used non-toxic nail polish, I still marked it as “for crafts only” after we finished. I filled this tray up with warm water and placed it on a plastic tablecloth in front of my daughter.
The tutorial I followed mentioned getting air flow before using the nail polish. Since we used odor free polish in our N is for narwhal craft, we probably didn’t need to do anything. But I opened the back door just to be safe.
Then, I showed her how to dip the nail polish brush into the water. She was a little too hard with some of her movements, but still got some to stay on the top. I handed her different colors as she asked for them. When it looked like there was a layer of nail polish on top of the water, she stopped. Judging by how light the color ended up being, we probably should have kept going.
Next, I helped my daughter hold on to the paper’s handle and slowly lower it onto the water. Then, I peeled off the handle and placed it out in the sun to dry.
Nail Polish Painting:
Since the colors didn’t show up very well, I let my daughter paint directly on it with blue nail polish. She loved painting the flipper and tail of her N is for narwhal craft. You can see in the picture that while we waited for the paper to dry, I painted my daughter’s toes and fingernails. I figured we wouldn’t be able to do this craft without my daughter wanting me to paint them.
Conclusion of Our N is for Narwhal Craft:
I am glad that we were able to adapt something my daughter already loves into a fun N is for narwhal craft. Even though our nail polish marbling didn’t work very well, it was still fun to do and a cool concept. My daughter had a blast. What has your child learned about from reading books?
If you are looking for other under the sea type crafts, check these out. Then, make sure to try all of our other alphabet crafts. And scroll to the very bottom and subscribe to get my weekly newsletter. That way you won’t miss out on the rest of our letter crafts.
