My daughter is currently into everything rainbow, so we were delighted when our recent Kiwico Koala Crate arrived and the theme was Rainbows. If you aren’t familiar with Kiwico, they offer a subscription service focused on science and art for kids 0-16+. We’re really big fans!

Our Rainbow Koala Crate came with three great arts and craft projects, and a magazine with a short story offering a perfectly age appropriate explanation of what rainbows are, as well as some fun rainbow-related experiments. One of the crafts involved tissue paper bleeding on a reusable bag, and we enjoyed it so much that we have recreated it on paper multiple times. It’s very simple, not particularly messy, and using pipettes is great for fine motor skills.

Here’s what you need:

• White paper as your canvas
• Several colours of tissue paper, cut into small pieces (different shapes can be fun)
• A tray or baking sheet with a lip to keep water contained
• Plastic pipettes (an eye dropper or plastic syringe would work in a pinch – pun intended) 🙂
• Small cup or jar of water

Prep:

• Lay your white paper on the tray/baking sheet
• Cut tissue paper in piece/shapes (My daughter tried to help with cutting the pieces of tissue paper, but safety scissors are tricky with tissue paper so she found it frustrating and asked me to do it for her.)
• Fill cup/jar with water

Create:

• Have your child place the pieces of tissue paper on the “canvas”
• Use pipette to drip water on each of the pieces of tissue paper
• Watch as the colours bleed from the tissue paper onto the “canvas”
• Let dry overnight and remove the dried pieces of tissue paper to reveal the finished art piece

*Note: the more water you use, the more the colours will get diluted and therefore be less vibrant

If you try this, I’d love to see photos of your art piece(s) in the comments below!