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Sometimes the simplest crafts are the most fun. Drawing, gluing paper together, and cutting out pictures are some of my three year old daughter’s favorite simple crafts. We just tried raised salt painting and it was almost just as easy and straightforward. It was also super fun and was one of those rare crafts that look good pretty much no matter what. My daughter, who loves glue, thought drawing with glue was silly, but she enjoyed every minute of it.
How to Make a Raised Salt Painting:
Materials:
Creating the Salt Drawing:
First, we took a piece of white cardstock and drew a picture on it using white glue. You may be able to get away with using normal printer paper, but cardstock will hold up better. My daughter and I both freehanded our drawings with the glue, but you can also draw your picture with a pencil first.
My daughter drew a fish and then Jonah. You could tell what it was until she decided to draw waves all over the entire thing. I drew Lumpy. Lumpy is my daughter’s elephant blanket lovey. We have done lots of crafts for and about Lumpy.
After we finished drawing, we shook salt all over the top of it. Then, we shook our paper all around until we had covered all the glue in salt. Next, we shook off all the extra salt and stopped for the day to let our craft dry.
Painting the Salt:
To paint the salt, you can use watercolors, but we used food dye instead. First, we mixed together a tiny bit of food dye into some water. I used a whole bunch of small paper cups to make a lot of different colors. Our colors looked dark at this point, but they ended up being really light. We barely used any of our dyed water, so when we do it again, I will use much less water to get darker colors and less waste.
Then, we took a dropper and dropped the colored water on our pictures. I just used the medicine dropper from a newborn essentials kit I got when my daughter was born. When the water hits the salt it spreads, creating a really fun color mixing effect.
To finish, we once again had to let it dry.
Conclusion of Raised Salt Painting:
I loved this craft. It was so simple, but looked so good. My daughter loved it too. She was very excited about both drawing with glue and watching the color spread through the salt. We both did very simple drawings, but I bet you could make some really intricate designs too. This is definitely a craft we will be doing again and trying to get darker colors. What simple crafts do you enjoy doing with your kids?
