Remember those “paint with water” books from when you were the kid?? Weren’t they the best? We had lots of fun with a set of watercolor pencils this afternoon, and Clara loved making her own “paint with water” pages!! If you don’t already have a set of watercolor pencils, Crayola makes a good set, and we absolutely love the vivid colors from this Derwent set – I used a 40% off coupon from the art store.
To help celebrate the season, I gave her lots of Autumn colors to experiment with — red, purple, orange, yellow, and brown.
I love that she chose to draw with all of them at once!
Her favorite part was adding the water and watching the pencil marks turn to paint — very exciting!!
Once it was all dry, I used some markers to turn her more abstract painting into an Autumn tree — Clara thought this was so awesome!
I think they will make lovely notecards for gift-giving with the help of a color copier, and I love that this was a quick, easy, low-mess project with very little clean-up. Yay for low-mess projects!! 🙂
Love it! I have been hiding a big set of water color pencils from my high school days in the garage so they didn’t get wasted. Might be time to break them out!
Perfect!! This would be great fun! I started by drawing a pic for Clara to paint with water first, but she loved drawing her own pictures so much more. I don’t blame her! 🙂
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing 🙂
You’re welcome, Tera! They are lots of fun!! Enjoy!!! 🙂
Very nice! I think I have a set of these from college – time to get them out!
How fantastic!! I bet your kiddos would LOVE this — have fun!
Dear Valerie,
An autumn tree AND a sunset! Win-win!
Love,
Mark
YES!!!
Beauty without the mess- AWESOME!
Yay!! I mean, I’m not afraid of messes, but it is nice to not have to worry about the clean-up after every project. Have fun!! xoxo
Valerie, this reminded me of an idea to share with you! You know the washable markers (Crayola, whathaveyou) that we all have various packs of? Well, when they dry out put them in a jar filled with water, let them sit for a few days, and you get bright vibrant watercolour paints that work absolutely wonderfully!! I separated the markers so that I have jars of yellow, red, green, blue, and purple paints. The paints turn out quite bright – they last a LONG time ’cause you can dilute them to get the shade you want! Hope you like this idea!
Thank you SO much for sharing this!! We have a pack of markers that is on its way out, so to speak, and would be perfect for this — I’ll definitely give it a go! Can’t wait!!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing! Very pretty! I have been wondering if they still made those paint with water books. Haven’t had any luck finding any. This is good alternative.
I know what you mean… they can be hard to find! Have fun!!
This turned out quite beautifully. I was also very intrigued by “making your own watercolors” suggestion above – I want to try it too 🙂
Yes!! Can’t wait to give it a go! 🙂
I went looking for the paint with water lately and they are no where to be found. Thanks for the awesome idea.
You’re welcome, Ruth! They are lots of fun to make… Enjoy! 😀