Mess-Free Finger Painting

Children love finger painting and parents hate it, usually for the same reason -- the mess! However, this easy activity allows your child to have the fun and the feeling of playing with the paint without you having to deal with the huge mess afterwards. It's a win-win solution for everybody.

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Things You Will Need:
Painters tape or masking tape
Heavy paper
Ziploc freezer bags
Paint (or similar colored substances such as hair gel or shampoo)

Squirt the paint into plastic bags. You can use just one color or try squirting in two primary colors of something like tempera paint, and turn it into a great color-mixing experiment for your child as well. From here, there are two ways you can proceed -- one is slightly messy (for you) and the other is completely mess-free.

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First, you can place the paper in the bag and then tape the whole thing down to the table with the masking or painters tape. Make sure you push out all of the air bubbles before the kids start smearing the paint around. Then, let your kids have at it. The messy part will come when they've finished painting and you need to take the paper out. Or you can just throw the whole thing away.

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The second option is to place the paper on the table (outside of the bag) and then tape the closed bag over the top of the paper. If you choose to do it this way, the bags (and the paper) can be reused for as long as the bag will hold up.

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And on days where you're in a particularly good mood, good old-fashioned regular finger-painting is always an entertaining and popular way to pass the afternoon.




Information taken from:
http://hippiehousewife.blogspot.com/2012/01/mess-free-finger-painting.html
http://mamasmiles.com/learning-laboratory-mess-free-art-improved/