When I was a kid I loved the idea of secret notes, disappearing ink, and sharing them with friends. There was just something so cool about being able to have a message appear out of nowhere! I also loved watercoloring and seeing how the colors blended together. My girls have been doing a lot of watercoloring lately.
With a new baby in the house and 2 other kids to keep happy, I have been employing a lot of tactics to keep them occupied and out of trouble. And, like in the movie About a Boy
my day feels like it’s divided into units of time–although my units are more like 15 minutes instead of 30. So I was thrilled that the rules for Craft Lightning Camp are that the craft can’t take more than 15 minutes (excluding drying time). Perfect!
So why not combine those two cool ideas and use the watercolor resist technique to send and receive top secret watercolor messages!
You’ll need:
Let’s get started!
- Take the white crayon and write a message or draw a picture. Saige is “writing” a letter to her friend Sophi here. (She was pretty concerned that it wasn’t working at this point.)
- Now you can trade papers with your friend or create a masterpiece to give them later.
- Take your brush and watercolors, and simply paint over the area where your message or picture is. As you paint, the color will resist anywhere there’s crayon and your message will appear!
Make your painting as elaborate or simple as you want. It was fun to be able to read a message to my 2-year-old after she got to paint it. But the most fun was getting to see their reaction as their “message” started appearing. Saige was open mouthed in amazement.
And it was so quick and simple that they wanted to keep writing more messages past their usual 15-minute unit of time.
How FUN! I would’ve LOVED doing this as a child as my BFF & I were slightly obsessed w/ “secrecy” when it came to note passing! LOL Thank you for sharing this craft, I bet my cousin’s Grans would like this!!
I think all kids are fascinated by secrecy. 🙂 I know I was.
What a fun idea!! You could have your child write a Happy Birthday message as card and attach with a watercolor set on the gift!! So many possibilities!!
this is such a cute idea! while we were camping the kids spent a couple of hours painting with water colors! I had totally forgotten how much I love them. I am going to have to try this with them next!
So fun! I’ve been wanting to do this with my kiddos.
Loved the About a Boy reference, btw!
Awesome idea! Thanks for joining!
I remember doing this as a kid! I thought it was MAGIC!
What a super fun idea! I love this and would be great to keep them busy as summer winds down….
How fun! My kids love “spy stuff” so this is perfect!
Love this idea! Very creative way to bond with your kid. 🙂
So fun! My kids would love this. Thanks so much for sharing with us at The Makers, Lisa 🙂
This is a really fun idea!! It would also be a fun way to make a quick piece of art. Do some handlettering of your favorite quote and do an ombre water color over it! I’m doing it. Pinned. Thanks!
This is so fun! I wanna do it! It is great for creative minds 🙂
So true!
These are so fun! My boys would LOVE this!
My girls definitely did. I think it’s fun for all ages.
Such a fun idea! Kids love crafts with a little bit of “magic” like this!
I love it even now!
LOVE!!! I remember writing secret messages as a kid. My girls will go nuts for this updated version!!
I remember writing with lemon juice and disappearing ink. This is a little easier to have good results though.
Fun! I loved all the “secret agent” stuff too. I just showed the boys how to “read” a message using the side of a pencil. They will love getting the watercolors out.
Nice! So many fun things to do as a kid.
This is so much fun!!! My kids are going to LOVE this!
I hope they do!
So cool! My boys are going to love this~
I love this, Lisa! It would be so great for a spy party! Very, very cool!
Yes! It would be a perfect party activity.