Valentine's day craft

I absolutely love arts made using liquid water colors. In my mind, they make all (including a newbie) work look so professional. I personally don't own them but wanted to figure out an alternative until I do. The handiest way to achieve this was to mix food coloring with water. I am not sure how close they are in reality, but I absolutely loved the result in our V-day craft.

using our alternate to liquid watercolors

The lacing effect came simply from kitchen towels. I used kitchen towel, food colors, water, water color paper, q-tips, masking tape.

• Cut heart chain out of kitchen towels and place it on the paper anyway you like. Use masking tape to tape the paper to the working surface. We have dedicated large cutting board that replaces an art easel for us. 

• Choose your food color and mix it with water, a tablespoon at a time. Check on the color saturation you like by putting a dot on paper using a q-tip and add color/ water accordingly until you like it. 

• Always always always make sure the colors you choose are complementing, so you don't end up with dark mess of brown or grey. Ask me, how I know this!!

• Provide a q-tip for each color and let your mind flow in beauty. 

J absolutely enjoyed watching the colors spreading out with every time his q-tip touched the hearts. 

  

• Saturate the hearts with colors, but don't dab on them or they will lose the beautiful lacing effect.

The dots and lines on the paper makes it look even prettier.

• Let them dry for an hour or so before peeling off. 

• The hearts might still be damp, gently, press on to another plain paper to get another version of the prints. It's equally beautiful.

This technique can easily be used on wrapping papers or as backgrounds on a canvas; the possibilities are endless. The best part is, it is as toddler friendly as it can be.