Kid Art: Bubble Wrap Canvas

I love making art projects with Lucy. And I love putting them up in my house. And Lucy loves seeing stuff that she’s made up in our house. So this project, my friends, is a triple win. We’ve bowled a turkey.

A few weeks ago I got my latest Vitacost order and it came with this awesomely huge bubble wrap. I knew right away we needed to do something with it. I’m not creating anything ground-breaking here. Bubble wrap painting is totally all over the internet.

So to make our bubble wrap painting a little more permanent I grabbed a pack of canvases from Michael’s. With a sale it came out to a couple bucks per canvas, so this is no bank-breaker. I also timed the project with Lucy’s graduation from the separate potty seat to making the transition to the “big” potty with a stool. I knew I wanted to replace the generic art we had in the bathroom so what a better way to convince a kid to spend more time on the throne than with some new art to appreciate.

I feel like I should start off by letting you know that we did this project first thing in the morning while Landon was still sleeping. So I think I wasn’t quite awake yet when I let Lucy paint with acrylic paint without a smock. [Boo.]

We started off with with me showing her how to use our supplies. This is the hardest part because everything is set up and ready and the last thing she wants to do is watch me play with her paint. I showed her how to use the brush to paint on the bubble wrap and then press it on the canvas and she was ready to go. And wouldn’t let me touch the canvas again. She’s already got the artists’ attitude.

She really was still tired. She soldiered through. For the love of painting.

I picked three colors for her and she painted them onto the bubble wrap.

She was able to carefully lift the bubble wrap and press it down onto the canvas.

We had some smaller bubble wrap so after she was finished with the larger bubbles we moved to the smaller. For this bubble wrap I found that it was easier for her to put too much paint on. When that happened you couldn’t see the little dots of the bubble wrap on the canvas, it just kind of turned in to a big goop. I’d suggest making the smaller bubble wrap a one-shot deal. Have the kiddo paint their design onto the bubble wrap and use it once like a stamp.

After Lucy was finished with her masterpiece I painted the sides of the canvas with a mixture of the leftover paints [so it ended up a nice navy color]. I think it would look better framed but I can always do that later. The painted edges did give it a more finished look.

Here’s our bubble art, living large in its new home in the throne room. I know I’m biased but I LOVE how it turned out. And since the project was only a couple bucks if I get tired of it we can do another project!