Dreaming of Spring: Glue and Salt Painting

We wanted to experiment with this technique- and oh what fun it was!

Materials

• Canvas or cardstock
• Contact paper
• Craft (white) glue
• Liquid watercolours or food colouring & water
• Salt
• Paint tray
• Droppers
• Craft tray
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Permanent marker
• Smock

Directions

• Put your canvas into your craft tray.

• Cut out a piece of contact paper the size of the canvas.  On the side with the peel off paper, draw a large egg (a bit smaller than your canvas).   You could go with any shape you like, but we were making this for an Easter gift.  To cut it out, gently fold it in half and make a snip to get you started.  Cut around the lines.

• Have an adult help you peel off the backing of the contact paper and adhere it to the canvas so that it makes a stencil.  Be sure to smooth it out to make sure that it makes contact at all the edges.

• Make designs with your glue in the centre of your stencil on the canvas, overlapping onto the contact paper.  Sprinkle salt onto your glue.  Have an adult gently shake off the excess salt.   Allow to dry overnight.

• Don your smock.  Once you have checked that your glue is dry, prepare your paint.

• Using your dropper, slowly apply the paint to your salt/glue lines, watching the paint travel.  This is the fun part!

• Allow to dry overnight.  Carefully peel off the contact paper.  Depending on the brand of glue, you may need to cut off some of the extra glue pieces, that lay outside of the stencil of the egg.

• Hang your work for Easter or give it to a friend!

Purpose

• Exploring different painting materials and tools

Safety Notes

• Use scissors with care & supervision.
• If you use permanent marker to draw out your egg, be sure to wear a smock to protect your clothes.
• We recommend using a craft tray to contain the salt, glue and paint and to protect surfaces.