Powder Tempera Sensory Art

The other day, E brought out our powder tempera containers and asked to do an activity with the dry paint. We’d used it for plenty of sensory activities, like our super fun Halloween Surprise Eruptions or for coloring Cloud Dough but never for actual art activities. I also drew something of a blank trying to come up with something artsy but Pinterest came to the rescue, and I found Two Daloo’s Powder Paint Suncatcher.

Now let me tell you, Stephanie over at Two Daloo is an extremely brave woman! Make sure to read her post and be amazed 🙂

I don’t have a problem with a good mess, especially outdoors, but I still decided to tone the whole thing down quite a bit and make it somewhat less messy for our version of Powder Tempera Sensory Art. Don’t worry, it was still plenty messy 😉

 

(E was 3 years and 10 months old.)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

 

 

 To make Powder Tempera Sensory Art, you’ll need

• Powder tempera.
• Glitter (optional).
• Contact paper.
• Sticky tape.
• A box (optional).
• Divided tray (optional).
• Spoon (optional).
• Packing tape (optional).

 

The basic idea is really very simple – all you need is powder paint and contact paper.

I tried to contain the mess a little and taped the contact paper down inside a box with the flaps cut off. I also put a plastic tablecloth under the box to protect our patio tiles. This set-up did a pretty good job of containing the mess, and the powder paint that inevitably ended up off the tablecloth washed off easily with a bit of water from the hose.

I also added a few glitter shakers because … well, glitter 😉

E was very excited when she finally got to dig into the powder tempera.

 

 

She started out using her fingers to sprinkle the tempera on the contact paper

 

 

and spread it around.

 

 

She added a generous amount of glitter,

 

 

then asked for a spoon to add more powder tempera.

 

 

When she was satisfied with the amount of powder tempera and glitter on the contact paper, E decided to step right into the box.

 

 

She used her feet to spread the paint around

 

 

and wrote letters with her fingers.

 

 

When she stepped out of the box, the tablecloth underneath got a good workout.

 

 

E asked for a paper towel to wipe off her hands and tried to use it to wipe off the tablecloth as well

 

 

but I had a feeling that it was all in vain because she wasn’t done with this activity yet.

And indeed, she soon stepped back into the box and stayed until she’d smoothed out all of the paint with her feet – now almost all you could see was red.

 

 

She spent some more time writing letters

 

 

before announcing that she was done with the activity.

Together, we carefully lifted the contact paper out of the box and gently shook off some of the excess powder tempera. Looking back, we probably could have shaken off quite a bit more.

 

 

While the side of the contact paper that had been on top still looked almost completely red, the back showed a lot more colors.

 

 

I stuck another piece of contact paper on top of the one E had painted and reinforced the edges with packing tape, then hung E’s work of art in the window.

It was probably a bit too opaque to call it a suncatcher but once the sun really hit the window, our piece of process art looked very nice indeed.

 

 

 

 

Have you used powder tempera before? Are your kids into turning art into a sensory experience? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

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