Puffy Paint Thunderstorm Craft
Inside: a process art thunderstorm craft for kids
After reading stacks of picture books about storms, my kids and I wanted to create a thunderstorm craft to go with the stories.
My first thought for making clouds, probably like yours, was cotton balls. I wanted them gray, so we tried painting them.
Let me just say that painting cotton balls isn’t fun – the wet cotton sticks to the paintbrush. Then, when we finished, it looked ugly.
So back to the drawing board.
Then I remembered homemade puffy paint. I found just the right super-easy, 2-ingredient recipe for it on Crafty Morning, and mixed some up. It came out just right.
I liked that no matter how sloppily the kids paint, you can still get a cute result. So let them “do their process art” and enjoy the lovely puffy paint texture. Then, when it all dries, you can assemble it into a fun collage.
Here is how …
Materials
- Shaving cream
- White glue
- Tempera paint
- Thick paintbrush
- Waxed paper
- Construction paper
- Gold or yellow pipe cleaners
- Scissors
- Watercolor paint
- Googly eyes
- Sharpie pen
- Glitter (optional)
Thunderstorm Craft Instructions
- Use watercolor to paint rain on a full sheet of construction paper.
- Cut out clouds from black construction paper. Lay them on waxed paper.
- Mix half glue and half shaving cream in a small dish. Swirl in a little light gray tempera paint (don’t mix it in completely).
- Paint the clouds with a thick layer of puffy paint.
- Sprinkle with glitter (I know. Glitter is evil. That’s why I’ve listed it as “optional”)
- Let the paint dry flat 24 hours.
- When the clouds are dry, glue them onto the collage.
- Glue on googly eyes, and draw a mouth.
- Cut each pipe cleaner in half. Bend each half back and forth to form lightning bolts.
- Use a generous amount of glue to attach the lightning.
This is such a cute craft, Heather! Love the puffy paint. Pinning this for later 🙂
Thank you – I know you'd have fun making it. The puffy paint is so pleasing to work with!
This is such a cute craft activity – I can't wait to make it! Thanks for sharing on #ToddlerFunFriday
This i a fun craft! I would have used cotton balls as well, but I love the puffy paint.