Simple Paper Towel Art

 

We had some left over watercolors from a previous art project that we didn’t want to go to waste, so we grabbed some paper towels and an eye dropper and made Paper Towel Art. E really had fun with it, and it’s such a simple technique that even toddlers can enjoy it!

 

(E was 4 years and 2 months old.)

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Materials for Paper Towel Art:

• Paper towels.
• Liquid watercolors or food coloring. 
• Eye dropper.

 

 

 

E loves using the eye dropper, and with this activity, she was able to drop to her heart’s content.

I put down four layers of paper towels on top of our trusty shower liner, and let her go to town.

She started with separate drops, and when she noticed that colors would mix when she dropped them close together, she experimented with intentionally mixing them by dropping colors on top of each other.

 

 

We noticed that the purple turned blue at the edges and chatted about why that may be.

 

 

E decided to try and turn the edge green by dropping yellow watercolors on top but it didn’t work.

 

 

She used a LOT of yellow and had to refill the cup twice.

 

 

She was really meticulous about where she put the colors. She went all along the right edge of the paper towels

 

 

before starting again in the lower left corner.

 

 

E really enjoyed the bright colors and how they spread but probably the best part for her was when she’d covered the entire paper towel and I pulled it back to reveal the lower layers. She was pretty impressed!

 

 

She was a bit confused about the white areas on the lowest layer, though – after all, she’d made every effort to cover the entire paper towel in watercolor drops. It gave us a chance to talk a bit about absorption and how the amount of watercolors she’d used determined how much was absorbed by the next layer.

 

 

Right afterwards, she asked for another paper towel to start over 🙂

 

 

 

Have you tried paper towel art? Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

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