Life is the bubbles!

Every morning between breakfast and our walk, I let Laney pick out some sort of craft to do unless I already have something in mind. During the weekend prior to schools closing 6 weeks ago, I had a feeling we would be spending a lot of time at home, so I pulled out all of our craft supplies and made a buffet-like set up on our dining room table. This keeps it all ‘at-a-glance’ to easily grab a craft or activity.

Today I had a pre-planned craft activity in mind for the girls to try. I saw the concept for this online not too long ago and filed it away in the back of my mind for another day. Spoiler alert: the initial couple of tries did not go as planned. But I will share our experience below.

Bubble Painting

Attempt One

The initial instructions simply stated that you needed bubble solution, bubble blowing sticks, food coloring and paper. I found some disposable cups in our kitchen that I used to mix together the bubbles with the different colors. I decided card stock would probably be best so that the paper wouldn’t get too soaked with the bubbles. I took all of our supplies outside thinking this would be best in case it made a mess. I hung the card stock on our light post with tape thinking this would be perfect as we stood and blew bubbles. After hanging them up, I realized that the wind was blowing the opposite way so I quickly switched them to the other side. Even still, as we tried to blow bubbles, they went everywhere but the paper. Strike one.

Attempt Two

After several unsuccessful attempts with the paper hanging, I decided to pull them down and put them on the walkway in the shade and see how it would work if we just leaned over the paper and blew bubbles. A couple of things happened, we dripped the colored solution on the paper as we leaned over and when we blew the bubbles they would pop prematurely and create a ‘spray’ effect on the paper instead of bubble imprints. Strike two.

 

Attempt Three

I was determined to get this to work, so I waited until the girls went down for their naps to give it a try myself. Thinking that my bubble solution may just be too old to still make quality bubbles, I concocted my own bubble solution the old school way: dish soap and water. I grabbed a few new pieces of card stock, several cups filled with my dish soap and water combo, my food coloring, straws and a few spoons. When you fill the cups, add the water slowly otherwise it will create a foam at the top that does not transfer well to the paper and blocks the bigger bubbles beneath it. If you do get the foam, just simply scoop it off with your spoon and dump it in the sink. I currently have Mrs. Meyers dish soap and neon food coloring. (Regular food coloring may be a little more vibrant than these but it’s what I had in the pantry.)

    

Usually a little food coloring goes a long way but in this case, more is more. I used about 10-15 drops of each color in their respective cups. I then used a straw to blow bubbles. What kid doesn’t love to blow bubbles in their drink no matter how many times we ask them to stop?! (As long as they are old enough to understand not to drink this stuff, yuck!) To prevent drips, I took one of the spoons and scooped a cluster of bubbles that I then dropped on the paper. Because these dish soap bubbles last longer than regular bubbles, I found that I needed to gently dab the bubbles with my finger or a paper towel to help them pop. If they stayed too long some of the bubble imprint was lost.

Here are my two practice papers. The first one, is me trying to use a normal bubble blower stick with the dish soap solution. It again still created the spray effect, so maybe it wasn’t my old bubble solution like I originally thought. The second shows my attempt with the bubbles made with a straw. At first I tried to swipe the bubbles off of the top of the cup onto the paper but this resulted in some drips from hovering the cup over the paper so this is when I determined it best to just use the spoon to actually scoop them up and over to the paper to drop, leaving the cup on the counter.

Here is the finished product with my new technique with the dish soap bubbles solution. Success! I plan to let Laney try this method again soon, though Morgan will need to wait until she is a little older. She would definitely try to drink it. For quick reference, I will list out the directions again of what worked below.

Bubble Painting with Dish Soap Instructions

Supplies

Dish Soap
Food Coloring
Small Cups
Spoons (enough for each cup/color)
Straws (enough for each cup/color)
Card Stock (or whatever paper you have)
Paper Towels

Directions

1. Prep your craft space with your paper, food coloring, cups, spoons and straws.
2. One by one, put a little squirt of dish soap in each cup and slowly fill them with water so that you do not create a layer of foam on the top. Make sure to allow yourself enough space to be able to blow bubbles.
3. Put 10-15 drops of food coloring in each cup and gently stir with the straw or spoon.
4. Pick a color and blow into the straw to create bubbles that start to come over the top of the cup like a dome.
5. Once the ‘dome’ is high enough, use the spoon to carefully scoop them off of the top and gently drop them on your paper.
6. If the bubbles are taking too long to pop, gently use your finger to pop the bigger bubbles and/or use a paper towel to pop/soak up any of the smaller bubble clusters.
7. Continue steps 4-6 with each color until you are happy with the outcome.
8. Let dry and hang to enjoy!

Tag me @multiplyingmichie on Instagram if you give this a try. I’d love to see your bubble paintings! Working with food coloring today gave me another idea that we will probably try tomorrow or Friday so stay tuned for another activity!