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

  1. Use watercolor to paint rain on a full sheet of construction paper.
  2. Cut out clouds from black construction paper. Lay them on waxed paper.
  3. 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).
  4. Paint the clouds with a thick layer of puffy paint.
  5. Sprinkle with glitter (I know. Glitter is evil. That’s why I’ve listed it as “optional”)
  6. Let the paint dry flat 24 hours.
  7. When the clouds are dry, glue them onto the collage.
Kids Thunderstorm Craft Activity to go with Picture Books about Storms
  1. Glue on googly eyes, and draw a mouth.
  2. Cut each pipe cleaner in half. Bend each half back and forth to form lightning bolts.
  3. Use a generous amount of glue to attach the lightning.

 

Kids Thunderstorm Craft Activity to go with Picture Books about Storms

6 Comments

  1. This is such a cute craft, Heather! Love the puffy paint. Pinning this for later 🙂

  2. Pingback: DIY Mars Rover Toy

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