Paint In A Bag- A Mess Free Activity For Your Child

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My kids are messy when it comes to arts and crafts. When they were younger and even more clumsy, I used to rip a head and arm holes into garbage bags and throw them over my children's heads so they could wear them and the bags would act as aprons to keep their craft off of them. Then I would lay table clothes on the floor under them so that clean up was easy and efficient.



I always want them to be creative, but I don't like the headache of cleaning up after them.

Imagine my delight when I first heard of suggestion of painting in a bag. "What's that?" you ask?

Oh, it's so simple! You literally put paint into a gallon bag and then let your kids move it around.

What You Need

• Clear Gallon Bags- I find that those that zip work better because they seal better. 

• Paint- Any type of liquid craft paint should work. I recommend something that's nontoxic and washable for the kids. (It should be obvious, but no spray paint or paint for a house with toxic fumes)

• White Sheet of Paper- I used computer paper, but any sheet of paper will work. 
• Tape- (optional)  Masking or something wider than clear tape works best. 
• Glitter- (optional)

What to Do

Step 1: Pour in any colors that your child likes. Try to keep them separate from each other so your kids can work them together. Add colors that blend into different colors. Ex: Pour red next to yellow for orange. Add glitter, if you'd like, but you'll need a lot of it to show.

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My daughter wanted pink and white so she could make a lighter pink.

Step 2: Seal the bag and tape over the white piece of paper. The tape is to hold the bag in place. I skipped this step because I misplaced the tape. The paper is there to help as background of sorts. Once your child has finished blending, they can run push the paint around and make "pictures" with the white background. 

Step 3: Enjoy!

Conclusion

This is an activity that my kids like to do. 

Unfortunately, now that they are older, it doesn't hold as much appeal for them as it used to. My daughter who is seven likes to play with this for a few minutes before wanting to paint "for real". Perhaps if I had more of the other colors that she likes, she would have played longer. 

My youngest who is four, still enjoys doing this more and spent more time playing with this. 

I think that if we were in the car, traveling, this would be a huge time passer as long as the paint stayed in the bag. 

Questions for you

What do you think of this project?

Are there any tips that you'd recommend?

Have you tried this before?

Are their similar projects that you've done before?

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