Blow painting with straws is simple yet lots of fun for kids of all ages. Use a straw to blow liquid paint around on paper, creating interesting designs.
Updated January 2021
Blow painting with straws is such a fun art activity––so fun in fact that I included it in my first book (The Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family’s Life with Art & Creativity).
This is one of those simple art activities that you can do over and over again and enjoy it every time and get a different result every time.
Here’s a video showing blow painting with straws in action:
We recently revisited blow painting, and had so much fun with it! Day after day after day.
We had the activity set up at the studio table for over a week and every day, multiple times per day, various configurations of kids and adults would be in there blowing paint around paper with a straw.
It’s kind of funny to watch, super satisfying to do, and the results are always interesting.
Here’s how to do blow painting with a straw.
Blow Painting with Straws
MATERIALS
- Tag board, card stock, or other heavy paper
- Liquid watercolor paint*
- Dropper or pipette
- Drinking straws
*If you don’t have liquid watercolor paint, you can use watered-down food coloring or watered-down tempera paint.
Time needed: 30 minutes.
INSTRUCTIONS
- Set up for the activity
– Place a sheet of paper on a tray with sides (a baking dish would work) or do this activity outside.
– Cut your straws in half, so your blowing action is more effective and closer to the paint. If you’re doing this with young children, poke a hole halfway up the straw with a pin. This will prevent them from sucking paint into the straw by accident.
– Put your liquid watercolor paints in small dishes, or use paint cups in a base as shown here.
– Get out your dropper.
- Add paint drops to paper
Use the dropper to transfer one or more droplets of liquid watercolor paint to the paper.
- Blow at paint through straw
Blow through the straw at the paint drops, forcing the paint to move along the paper in tiny rivulets.
- Repeat with more paint
Repeat steps 1 and 2 with more paint and more colors until you are satisfied with your design. Set aside to dry and start over with a new sheet of paper!
See why we use a tray? The paint can splatter off the paper. (You could also do this activity outside, of course.)
It can be interesting to see the colors run together and mix, as in the photos below. You can see where yellow blended with blue to make green.
After the paint dries, you can display your artwork or use it to make cards, wrapping paper, collage papers for other art, or more.
We even used some of our blow paintings as drawing prompts…
More Action Art Ideas for Kids
- Painting with Wheels is an Easy Action Art Activity for Kids
- Marble Painting for Kids
- Splat Painting – Action Art for Kids
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19 Comments
sulia
June 13, 2017 at 2:23 pmwhat an interesting idea I come across. Thank you very much for your generosity that you show me your skills and knowledge. I hope that you continue to share with me your creative idea.
Jean Van't Hul
June 15, 2017 at 6:23 amYou’re welcome, Sulia!
barbara j
June 14, 2017 at 10:11 amWhere did you get that great plastic tray?
Jean Van't Hul
June 15, 2017 at 6:23 amIt’s from IKEA, Barbara. We have a couple of them that we use for art. If you don’t have an Ikea near you, you can probably find inexpensive plastic trays at places like Target or Walmart. Or buy some especially for art. I link to some art ones that we have used and loved for years in my post on tools for art ::
https://artfulparent.com/2014/01/the-best-tools-for-a-successful-kids-art-experience.html
Madi
June 14, 2017 at 7:44 pmThis looks like so much fun. Going to try it out..
Thanks for the tip to prevent sucking in the paint, was worried about that :)
Jean Van't Hul
June 15, 2017 at 6:20 amAbsolutely, Madi! You’re welcome! :) I hope you enjoy the activity!
Catherine Dobbins
June 28, 2017 at 4:28 pmWhere did you get the trays that hold the paint? Not the overall tray, just the paint part. Thank you!!
Ivy Jiang
September 26, 2017 at 2:08 am[email protected]
VDIBSI
January 17, 2018 at 2:37 pmJ´adore thank you so much
Merci beaucoup ????
Jamie
June 23, 2018 at 7:16 amCould you water down acrylic paint to do this on canvas? I know acrylic tends to hold best on canvas.
Jean Van't Hul
June 23, 2018 at 9:10 amAbsolutely! Any liquid paint would work. I’d love to hear how it goes for you with the watered down acrylic on canvas…
Elihana
February 23, 2021 at 11:11 pmit was fun
Erica
July 20, 2018 at 8:56 amThanks for sharing this! I was looking for a quick art project for the kids, and they loved it! I’m always surprised when they still LOVE to see colours mix, and then I remember that I STILL love to see how they mix ;)
Aanchal Karnwal
October 23, 2018 at 11:51 amLove this idea!! I love the book as well and bought it when my baby was 1 year old. I loved art as a kid I wanted to make sure when my son come back home from daycare I should be able to do fun things with him along with learning. And your posts just right for that :)
That book has been helpful :)
Mahedi Hassan
January 27, 2019 at 2:53 amLove this idea!! I remember, when I was a kid, I liked to art on the wall. Then, mom screaming over me :D
d bates
March 7, 2019 at 8:02 pmis there a elec .tool used to blow paint? I thought I saw a vidio with one
Jean Van't Hul
March 11, 2019 at 9:05 amYou could try it with a blow dryer!
Liz
March 10, 2021 at 1:18 amAbsolutely love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
John ferg
June 19, 2021 at 2:29 amApparently hunter is blowing through a straw rather than snorting drugs up a straw