It’s always fun to experiment with painting on new materials. Instead of painting on regular paper, we decided to have some fun painting on kitchen paper to experiment with how the paint is absorbed and how this changes the effect of the painting. This is a really simple paint absorption process art activity that would work well with even young toddlers. It’s totally process orientated, although the end results did look pretty too! But there’s no need to worry about the outcome with this activity, it’s just fun to explore and smush the paint and see how it turns out.
I did this activity with R, age 3. We used red and gold paint for a Chinese New Year theme, but pick any colour or theme that you like to adapt this activity all year round.
All you need for this absorption art activity is:
- Kitchen roll (we used Ora round kitchen roll because it looks a bit prettier, but normal square ones are also fine!)
- Watered down paint (power paint mixed with plenty of water works well)
- Paint brush
- Glitter (optional – to mix with paint if you like)
Then we just got busy experimenting with the paint on the kitchen roll. R loved this simple activity and tried a few different effects on the tissue, although his favourite was covering the paper completely
He was really focused in this activity, and the great thing is that it took only a couple of minutes to set up but kept his attention for ages
Having glitter mixed in with the paint definitely made the results more pretty and visually interesting, so if you do have some hanging around in your craft cupboards it’s definitely worth mixing some in.
I love seeing how much enjoyment my kids can get from these simple ideas. Process art is a really great low pressure way to get creative, rather than focusing on making a craft a specific way which can still be  frustrating at times for my youngest. He does enjoy craft too, but this type of project is totally care free.
(yes, I did have him painting in a totally white top – lol. Somehow it stayed mostly clean!)
It was interesting to explore the different effects we could make on the paper. I think they all look great in their own ways!
When the paint dried, it become a bit lighter and pinker too as the colour faded, so that can be interesting to observe too and you could try all sorts of colours and see if you notice different effects, or try colour mixing on the absorbent kitchen paper.
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More Process Art
You might also like these fun ideas:
- Shiny Starry Night Mirror Painting
- Kid Made “Love” Process Art Canvas
- Potato Masher Painting
- Shaving Foam & Paint
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Awww looks so much fun to do! I would love to try this while we are still in halfterm =) #pocolo
This is such a simple but fun looking idea! I will have to try it with my daughter after work/school soon.
Love this Anna … so simple but there’s some really interesting science in it as well. Always a fab combo. Pinned. #pocoloco
What a fascinatingly simple piece of artwork to do – it sounds like great fun. Thank you for linking to #PoCoLo 🙂 x