Painting with watercolors is so much fun. Everyone from 3 to 103 can enjoy painting with watercolors. It seems in the last year I have seen a lot of people pick up painting. I love seeing all the beautiful artwork that has come from such a chaotic time. We have certainly enjoyed creating many different types of artwork in our house. Since July is World Watercolor Month, I decided we should use that medium in our next project. I remember a fun activity I used to do when I was younger and decided it was time to introduce my daughter to watercolor secret messages!
How Do You Make Watercolor Secret Messages?
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission, at no cost to you. We only recommend products we use and like. We hope you like them, too! Happy Shopping!
You will need:
- Watercolor paint
- Cardstock paper
- Paintbrush
- Cup of water
- Paper towel
This project is so simple you can do many variations in one sitting. Take a white piece of cardstock paper. For this project, make sure you are using a thick piece of paper so the watercolor paint does not seep through and rip the paper. Take a white crayon and write something on the paper. I wrote my daughter’s name for her artwork. She can recognize her name and I knew she would be excited once it was revealed.
After your message is written on the paper, start painting! Dip your paintbrush in some water, blot it slightly on a paper towel, and dip in your choice of color. Brush the paint on your paper. Bigger strokes will help reveal the message better. My daughter likes to use small strokes and use a lot of colors, so the message was not quite as prominent as mine when I made the big, bold brushstrokes.
How Does it Work?
This project is also a great opportunity to throw in a little science lesson. Crayons are made of wax. Wax is hydrophobic, which means it avoids absorbing water, due to their long, nonpolar carbon chains. This causes wax to be water repellent. Since the watercolor paint is water-based, the wax of the crayon does not absorb the watercolor paint. Instead, it beads off the wax, leaving behind the secret message you have written. This is the same principle behind waxing a car.
More Fun Painting with Watercolors
Watercolor paint is an easy medium for kids to work with. This project is perfect if you are working on letter, number, or sight word recognition. Print black and white coloring pages on cardstock for your kids to paint. Watercolor paints blend well, so they are great for pictures like the Earth, flowers, or flames. You can also let children paint their own creative masterpiece. I love just laying a piece of paper in front of our daughter and seeing what she comes up with.
Feel free to share your kid’s masterpiece on our Facebook page to share inspiration for other mamas!
Happy Painting!
We really like this watercolor paint. There are 36 colors that are perfect for any project. The lid comes off to use as a palette, perfect for mixing and blending colors. As a bonus, it also comes with 10 different sized paintbrushes, so your kid can experiment with thin and thick lines.