Paint Popsicles

Do you and your little ones have certain activities that you return to time and time again? Projects that just never seem to get old? 

We certainly do. One of our favourites is making and using paint popsicles! It’s a terrific summer activity that’s absolutely perfect outside on a warm day (but we’ve been known to do it indoors in the winter too).

You Will Need:

• a popsicle mould
• food colouring, liquid watercolours or tempera paint
• water
• art paper (watercolour paper is especially lovely)

Instructions: 

In order to do some popsicle painting of your own, you’ll first need to prepare your paint popsicles. This part is easy! 

1. Take your popsicle mould and fill each slot about one-sixth full of food colouring or liquid watercolours or approximately one-third full of tempera paint. Feel free to experiment with these ratios to find the vibrancy you like best. 

2. Slowly top up the popsicle moulds with water and give each one a gentle mix using a small spoon or bamboo skewer.

3. Pop the tops on the moulds and place the paint popsicles into the freezer overnight.

When you’re ready to use your paint popsicles, simply take them out of the freezer and let them sit on the counter for a few minutes or run them under hot water.

You’ll know the popsicles are ready to use when they're easily removed from the mould and there’s a little bit of liquid paint left in the bottoms.

Now for the fun part—testing out your colours!

Slowly drag your paint popsicles across a piece of white art paper and see how they turned out.

This year, we used liquid watercolours and we were especially thrilled with the vibrant colours our paint pops produced!

When you’ve had a chance to try out all of your colours, go ahead and create a piece of original art using your paint popsicles.

Be sure to experiment with using the tip of your paint popsicle vs. the side of it and moving it quickly across the paper vs. slowly across it.  Each method will create its own unique effect!

When you’re done your painting, simply let it dry in the sun and return what’s left of your paint popsicles to the freezer for future use. 

And that’s it! An easy, open-ended summer art activity to add to your list before summer is gone and fall rolls around.