Kids Craft Idea: Drip Painted Paper Towel Flowers

This post has a little something for everyone – a simple process art idea for younger children and a fun craft for tweens or teens – that also makes a great gift. And it’s all thanks to a roll of paper towel!

My small girl is in love with dripping liquid watercolours! She loves watching the colours spatter and mix. In fact, she loves it so much that she completely covered a huge ‘canvas’ that I made by sewing together three long strips of paper towel. You heard me right, I stitched together paper towel! It’s actually pretty strong and perfect for kids’ craft projects – both the doing and the cleaning up!

Drip painting is so simple to do. All you need are pipettes or eye droppers (we used both but the pipettes work best because they hold more liquid) and liquid watercolours in your favourite colours. While little sister worked on our huge paper towel canvas (that now hangs proudly in the playroom), big sister drip painted a heap of single sheets of paper towel to use to make these gorgeous, oversized paper towel flowers.

How to Make Paper Towel Flowers

You will need:

• Paper towel
• Liquid watercolours
• Pipettes or eye droppers
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners
• Hot glue gun (optional)

Colouring your flowers:

Before making your flowers you will need to colour them. You can try drip painting or just as easily tie dye or spray bottle paint your paper towel with liquid watercolours. Leave to dry thoroughly.

To make your flowers:
1. Stack three single sheets of paper towel one on top of each other.

2. Fold the stack of paper towels in half and then in half again.

3. Trim the paper towel into a petal shape (see below) being careful to keep the petals connected on the fold.

4. Unfold the paper towel sheets.

5. Re-stack the paper towel sheets so the petals are staggered.

6. Pick up the paper towel stack, pushing down in the centre of the flowers and pinching the layers together from underneath.

7. Twist a pipe cleaner tightly around the base of the flower to hold the layers of petals in place. Dab with a little hot glue to secure.

8. Separate and fluff the petals to form the flower.

My number one tip for managing the mess of art experiences with kids is to have your clean up ready before you even begin. I always have paper towel on hand when my girls are busy with art and craft projects as it’s handy for wiping down both messy hands and table surfaces.