It’s been a few days since we did anything creative different from what have done previously. The little one is teething so sleep has been totally elusive both for him and more so for me. Its been a tough few days to say the least, having the elder one at home for vacations and not being able to occupy him has added to the guilt, that hasn’t helped either. That’s how mothers roll I suppose, on good days you just make the most of it.

After nearly a week the little one has gone down for a morning nap on time leaving the elder one and me to attempt something new. I like to be around when the older one tries something new because otherwise the mess is never contained to the activity area, its on the sofa, the bed, the kitchen and everywhere else.

I have been wanting to try this forever simply because of how beautiful it looked on the artfulparent.com site. Jean has amazing ideas on engaging kids creatively, she has been my inspiration for this blog as well. Salt blot painting plays on how well paint blots when using salt, especially with liquid water colour. Solid colours are accentuated but when mixing colours the resultant colour is bold and vibrant as well.

Here’s what we used –

• Table salt
• Base – chart, paper plate, board, foam sheets or other thick bases you may have
• Glue – to create the pattern and used to stick the salt
• Water colours – tube or liquid colour

On the base draw a quick pattern in pencil, put the glue on the lines and lay on the salt as you would rangoli powder, I used paint brushes to help the kids put the salt on the glue for precision.

Mix water with the colours and using brushes drop the liquid colour on the salt, watch it blot and spread making a vibrant colourful design. We made a flower for starters and may try to do more complex designs soon. It was a pleasure watching the colour spread and teaching the kiddo how salt crystals carry the water in the colour which is why the colour blots!

A little bit of science to a lot of art. It was easy enough to set up considering I had all the materials in my kitchen and fun for almost an hour for the kiddo to practice. The whole activity took 5 minutes to set up and 1 hour to do. A lot of fine motor skill activity, sensory play and colour mixing makes this a great activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

Go on grab some salt and get painting.