How to Make Soap Bubble Art

Soap bubble art, or bubble painting as it's sometimes known, is an easy and fun project. You can make the paint with household ingredients and the results are colorful and have a three dimensional quality. Since most kids love to blow bubbles, you should probably be prepared to become a living piece of soap bubble art, too. At least you'll be clean.

Things You'll Need

• 2 Tbsp. tempera paint
• 2 Tbsp. dish detergent
• 1/2 cup water
• White construction paper
• Bubble wands, pipe cleaners and/or straws
• Plastic cups or empty yogurt containers
• Newspapers or a plastic tablecloth
• Old T-shirts or other art smocks

Instructions

1. Cover your work surface with newspapers or a plastic tablecloth. Soap bubble art is very messy, which is probably half the fun. After you cover your work surface, cover your clothes and that of your children. Old T-shirts or button-down shirts worn backwards make great art smocks.

2. Make your bubble paint. Use plastic cups or old yogurt containers, one for each color of paint you want to make. Place 2 Tbsp. of tempera paint in each cup, add 2 Tbsp. of dish soap and 1/2 cup of water. Mix the solution with a spoon.

3. Test your paint to make sure it's bubbly enough. Too much paint can make the solution too heavy and not soapy enough. Put a straw in one of the cups and blow gently to see if the solution will bubble. If not, add a little more water and dish soap.

4. Distribute bubble wands, straws and pipe cleaners to each eager artist. The pipe cleaner can be bent into shapes and then used as bubble wands. The advantage to using pipe cleaners is that you can make different sizes of bubbles which will vary the artwork a little.

5. Create soap bubble art. Use a straw to blow into each container until the bubbles reach the top and then press a piece of white construction paper on the bubbles. As they pop, they will leave rings on the paper. Repeat this process with a variety of colors to create a layered, tie-dye look.

6. Blow bubbles onto the paper using the bubble wands or pipe cleaners. This technique allows you to have a little more control over where the paint will land on the paper.

7. Replace the paper with a new piece before it gets soaked through. Too many bubbles makes for a different art project--paper making.

Tips & Warnings

• When doing this project with young children, stress the importance of blowing through the straw instead of sucking through it. It sometimes helps to use the example of blowing bubbles in milk. After all, what kid hasn't tried that?