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Watercolor Garland {paint with Q-tips}

July 10, 2014 by Barbara Rucci 8 Comments

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make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors and a unique painting tool

I am so in love with these garlands that the 4-yr olds made in art camp last week. This technique was such a success that the kids asked to do it again the next day! They LOVED painting with q-tips. And I swear, there was literally no way to make these mini paintings look bad. They were all just so beautiful!

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Liquid Watercolors (I use these from Blick, buy the 8oz bottles because you will love and use them that much. I used yellow, orange, red, pink, metallic gold and fluorescent pink for this project. Amazon doesn’t display their colors, so if you want to see the full color chart you can look or buy them here.)

Watercolor paper (I use this lighter weight paper, cut to 3″ x 4″)

Q-tips

Small containers (I used plastic egg cartons, or you could use these palettes)

Hole punch (1/8″)

Yarn

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

The instructions for this project are so easy. Simply put out your watercolors, let the kids add a q-tip to each color, then have them paint on their little rectangles. Once they are dry, punch a hole at the top corners and string them together. Voila! I do have a tip: cover the end of the string with a little piece of tape so it resembles a shoelace. This will make it easier to get through the little holes.

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

make a beautiful garland with liquid watercolors & q-tips

I cannot mention this enough…these are GORGEOUS!! Something so easy and pretty should be made by everyone.

It’s almost the weekend…yay! Have a great one.

xo, Bar

 

Filed Under: Process Art, Open-ended Crafts for Kids, Art for Toddlers, DIY Tagged With: Q-tips, garland, liquid watercolors

Previous Post: « Rhode Island Summers
Next Post: Make Pretty Things with Paint Chips »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laura

    July 10, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    These are so awesome! I would happily hang these up and what a success for the kids 🙂

    Reply
    • Barbara Rucci

      July 12, 2014 at 12:32 pm

      thank you so much laura! and i just checked out your beautiful website…you are crazy talented. glad to meet you! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Dana

    July 20, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    What a cute idea! Looking for things to do with my girls and they would really enjoy this

    Reply
  3. Helena

    September 10, 2014 at 9:30 am

    I’ve done with my 3 years old daughter and she love it! So did I!! Thank you for shearing your idea!!!

    Reply
    • Barbara Rucci

      September 10, 2014 at 1:55 pm

      so glad you did this Helena, and they you had so much fun. it’s my favorite art experience ever. thank you!! xo bar

      Reply
  4. Mei

    January 18, 2015 at 5:42 pm

    Hi, which watercolor paints do you use? The link is broken to amazon.
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Barbara Rucci

      January 19, 2015 at 8:15 am

      sorry mei, i don’t know what happened to that link but i just fixed it. it looks like Amazon doesn’t sell the brand i love anymore, with is Blick. here is a link to the Blick site: http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-liquid-watercolors/ thanks for stopping by! xo bar

      Reply
  5. Alana

    July 11, 2017 at 8:30 am

    Love these, and what a beautiful and cost-effective way to add beautiful decor to a space! {classroom or kid’s room}. Will be sharing and trying!
    x
    Alana

    Reply

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I have been thinking lately about so many big idea I have been thinking lately about so many big ideas. They seem to be stuck, though, in the cogs of my brain. I need to articulate and connect these ideas together, but I can’t find the right words, or medium. It feels like trudging through thick mud, and then making the choice to set up camp in the muddy place. Maybe this is always what motherhood + living a creative life will be. And I am ok with that, too. Life is mucky, and even though I crave clarity, I am also acutely aware that this is why I also crave art. Music, books, museums, film, gardens… these are the mediums humans turn to when they need to find connection and, if we are lucky, clarity. But I feel more protective of my human-centered ideas these days and less willing to share them in spaces like this where they are open source. I don’t even know what is real sometimes. And how am I contributing to this landscape of creative and intellectual robbery. I think I am headed in a different direction but I don’t know what that is yet. Meanwhile, I am camping in the mud and looking for beauty where I am. 

Some moments new and old, lately…

1. Painting at my easel, age 4 when we lived in England before moving to the US. 
2. I tried making a video of motherhood on mother’s day inspired by this song 🌙 but never finished. 
3. Planting dahlias 🌸
4. Year 2 of my veggie garden. It is not going well. 
5. We diagnosed our garden problem as not enough sun so cut down a tree to give the sun a little path but then the sun moved. Also failing at science 😳
6. When you see your habits in your children ❤️ 
7. My mom’s caretaker gave me a cake and now I am a whole year younger 🙏🏼
8. Thank you James for the treats, mom dreams of traveling to visit your bakery but this was the next best thing 🥐
9. Finding 50 bucks in jeans from 20 years ago 👏🏼 Always check the pockets!
10. The newly graduated makeup artist with her kit off to a job 💋 
11. When the birthday kid isn’t home it’s too sad. must make art. 
12. When I am so dumb and share it on the internet 🙃
13. My heart, my clarity ❤️
14. Another round of silkscreening! Things are happening. 
15. MUA by Ava, and hanging out with the help 😍
16. Reminder.
Happy Earth Day! Can we agree that every day is Happy Earth Day! 

Can we agree that every day is Earth Day? The older I get, the more I change my habits to be kinder to this beautiful planet. Lately, seeing the photos from Artemis II of Earth from space has really moved me to make even more planet-friendly choices. Here are some things we do at home, and of course, we could always be better, but I also think small changes are more doable and sustainable, and if millions of us did just one of these things, it would make a difference.

Ok, here goes! My hope is that someone reads one of these actions and thinks, I can do this! We cannot reverse the melting ice caps, but we can stop further global warming… humans can do this if we work together. It starts small and is community-driven, so share this with friends!

1. Eating less meat, eating more veggies (this is also called eating low on the food chain). A vegetarian or vegan diet is a low-carbon diet. Did you know switching to 2/3 vegan reduces your carbon footprint by 60%? 
2. Grow our own veggies. Save on emissions and packaging, and find joy in gardening.
3. Less food waste. Eat leftovers, clear the fridge.
4. Buy less. Buy local.
5. Repurpose, fix, mend, thrift.
6. Make homemade gifts.
7. Drive less, fly less. (This one is harder, but being conscious of it is really important.)
8. Moderate, steady thermostat settings can save so much energy. Try 67/68 F in the winter and 72/73 in the summer and don’t touch it.
9. No pesticides on our lawn. It may not be pretty, but we have never had a beautiful lawn, and I’m fine with that. We also live on a river so the thought of polluting that water so I can have a perfect lawn is crazy.
10. Using non-toxic cleaning products or making our own from vinegar.
11. This year, we will do “no-mow May” to promote biodiversity, help the soil, and reduce emissions.
12. Vote for candidates who take climate change seriously!

Add some things you are doing in the comments. This is a judgment-free zone, so no preaching! But for real, we all can do a little bit better. 

The blog post about these signs is on artbarblog.com, link in bio!
New blog post! It’s about time I share my favorite New blog post! It’s about time I share my favorite materials that I bring to the library. Read the post for links and tips for how to pair these materials to foster deep engagement. Children have always needed time in childhood to use their hands to make things and play, but now more than ever, the skills they develop through these experiences are imperative for their future well-being and success. I’ve been reading everywhere about children’s “lost skills” in this new ed tech world where screens have replaced so much hands-on learning in the classroom, even as young as preschool 😞 Communication skills, flexible thinking, regulating emotions, building empathy for others, innovating, even core strength and pencil grips are a struggle. Offering time and materials for making things and playing with ideas should not be a challenge; it should be as essential as filling bodies with fresh air and food. Play is how children learn! Anyway, I hope this post will inspire you to collect some things for making and maybe even join our Materials Matter course over on @the.creativityproject so that you, too, can become an expert at cultivating creative thinking through art making!
It’s almost impossible to concentrate or sleep or It’s almost impossible to concentrate or sleep or work or enjoy anything these days. I know joy is resistance, art is resistance, kindness and empathy are resistance, and I try and practice all of these things every day, and also boycotting and shopping local and volunteering and making calls and checking on my neighbors and bartering and keeping our big tree lit for the community. And still, it doesn’t feel like nearly enough. I know we probably all feel this way. And maybe the collective small things really do add up to bigger movements, I don’t know. It’s Sunday and my mom is in the hospital again and I miss my one at college and I had such a bad dream last night. My headspace is not in cheerleader mode which is my usual default. And yet… going through my camera roll to find photos of things I made did actually help today. And I have made a plan for future things to make. When I wake up in the middle of the night, the way I get myself back to sleep is by envisioning this one big installation idea I’ve had for years, it takes place in a forest and involves textiles. So maybe 2026 is the year for me to bring this to life, or begin the process. I think about this quote, and it helps, too: When you make art, you rebel against a world that fears vulnerability. Ok, I’m better. Thank you for listening 🤪❤️

Ps: It weighs on me that Meta should be part of the boycotts. If anyone has any ideas for building community and sharing somehow somewhere else let’s discuss.
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All content on this blog is copyright and owned by Art Bar Blog unless otherise stated. I would be flattered if you wanted to use an image from one of my posts! But please, ask me first. I would also ask that if it involves DIY instructions with a list of supplies that you don't repost any of that stuff because then nobody would have a reason to click back to my original post!

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