Paper Plate Paint Palette Umbrella Craft for Kids
What are the odds you have a little one like mine? You get a project ready, paper, brushes, paint. You give instructions and let them at it! … … …30 seconds in and they’re having more fun mixing the paint you set out in front of them.
What’s supposed to be a cute project for you to hang on your dining room wall has now become an experiment.
Maybe you end up with an almost finished project. Maybe you’re so exasperated that you give up on the idea of getting some new art to display. Or maybe you encourage this exploration while inwardly hoping some of the color makes it to the project you’ve prepped.
Recently my 3-year-old son has asked to do a project almost daily. Finally!! How exciting!!
Now slow it down a little, ‘do a project’ means give me paint and watch me paint my hands and swirl all the colors. It’s really not as terrifying as it sounds. Sometimes I even get pretty handprint art out of the process.
Quick tip to make finishing a painting project a little more exciting, skip the brushes. Look around your space and find something new to paint with:
- Shower pouf
- Sponges
- Forks
- Hands
- Potato masher
- Yarn
- Feathers
Why not? Wash what you can, throw what you can’t. I guarantee their interest will be peaked.
One item I always keep stocked at my home is white paper plates. Those flimsy ones you don’t want to see being used at picnics. They’re terrible for food but amazing for art projects. You can make so much with a simple paper plate. They also make great paint palettes!
Unbeknown to you and your little, you have just supplied at least two projects. If your kiddo has mixed or swirled or spread the paint on their little paper plate palette they have probably created another really interesting work of art. Why throw this away? Turn that process art into a finished project.
My daycare entrance has a large piece of orange paper taped to the wall. Why orange you ask? A couple years ago when I started making a picture board, a kit I purchased at Halloween came with this large thick orange paper. It’s been there ever since, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, April showers/May flowers. Bright orange paper. Surprisingly it works.
Even though we are experiencing a never-ending winter where I live, we are crafting for spring!! After a recent Easter project where we painted with shower poufs and pastel-colored paints, we had some really pretty paper plates left at the end.
The colors are so cheerful and springy, they will make perfect umbrellas for our next display!
NOTE: you don’t have to save this for a recycled paper plate project, this is a great project to put a couple globs of paint down and let your child explore and experiment for a while. Kids are washable.
If you’re a visual person check out this link or this link for a quick video. Otherwise follow along for a few simple steps.
- After your paint palette paper plate has dried, cut off the bottom portion about 2 finger spaces below half. You can go straight across or in a wavy patter. (Don’t throw the bottom portion!)
- Cut some paper in the shape of a J for your handle.
- Glue your handle to the paper plate.
So simple and cute!! Now we also have the first part of our next picture/bulletin board ready. Remember to hold onto that bottom portion and I will link HERE the next part of our bulletin board project.
