Homemade painting tools are a great addition to your crafts toolkit. They’re easy to make with some recycled cardboard and provide unique opportunities to explore and create with your preschoolers.
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A homemade painting tool is easy to make with recycled cardboard. It only takes two simple steps to create this awesome alternative to a paint brush for kids art activities.
Use sturdy cardboard to make these paint tools, so they will hold up when the cardboard gets saturated with paint. Cardboard is a readily available from pizza boxes and other packaging.
While these paint tools are easy -and fun – to make, a similar set of plastic paint scrapers
This simple DIY will provide lots of opportunity for process art! Set up the activity with a few different paint colors as an invitation for kids to create.
Get ready for some awesome painting experiences with your preschoolers. Minimal instruction is required to provide oodles of creative fun!
Related: Painting with recyclable containers
Cardboard painting tools DIY
Cut out a square or rectangle shape from cardboard.
Cut notches in one side of the cardboard.
- Vary the notches to create different results.
Drop a dab of washable kids paint
Glide the painting tool through the paint to create a design.
Learning through play
1. Create a wall mural.
- Make “grass” as shown in the photo above.
- Make wavy, fluffy clouds in the “sky”.
- When the paint is dry, draw and cut out trees, flowers or animals to glue into the picture.
2. Place a long sheet of paper on a table.
- Put dabs of different paint colors at intervals along the length of the paper.
- Place a paint spreader one one end of the paper.
- Walk along the full length of the paper without lifting the spreader from the paper.
Awesome ideas for painting tools from other bloggers:
- How to Make Your Own Potato Stamp – Emma Owl
- Pipe Cleaner Heart Print Making – Where Imagination Grows
- Painting Ideas for Kids Using Rubber Bands – JDaniel4’s Mom
- Nature Paint Brushes – Messy Little Monster
Find more painting activities on our Pinterest board.