Earth Day Puffy Paint Earth

Earth Day takes place annually on the 22nd of April. You may be looking for engaging crafts and activities to do with the children to help generate some fun discussions on ways we can work together to help the earth - we have you covered. Today I want to share with you Puffy Paint Earth.

I recently shared a Earth Day STEM Globe idea so do check this out too!

Puffy Paint is a favourite art technique here and is really simple to make. Our step by step guide will ensure your activity is a success.

Ready Mixed Paint - blue and green

Paint Brushes

Shaving Cream

PVA Glue

Take your bowls and squirt in your shaving cream. If you could do with some new bowls you can get some from our shop. We need to aim for a 50/50 mix of shaving cream to PVA glue. 

Once your glue is added and you start to give it a good mix you will notice the shaving cream decreasing down in volume so you may want to add some more depending on how much you will need for this activity (consider how many children will be taking part for example).

Once you have mixed the two ingredients and it remains still on a paint brush when lifted you are ready to start adding colour. I have trialled using food colouring and paint. You can use either - there is no advantage to using one over the other. It is just based on personal preference. 

Mix well. You do need to add quite a bit of colour to achieve desired vibrancy but my advice would be to add little and often, mixing it through well and then checking the colour and deciding if you want it any darker.

It is really simple to make and the children will really enjoy helping with all the above steps. You can look at tracing around a circular shape for your globe which is another fun skill the children will enjoy mastering or you can print out circular templates onto some card. 

We didn't have the sea and land marked out on our shapes, I think it's nice for the children to create their globes freely. Start to tap the puffy paint in place on your templates until you have a globe bursting with blue and green! 

You can leave them to dry on a flat surface for a couple of times. Sometimes overnight is enough time to fully dry out but sometimes you do need an extra day to ensure they have fully dried out. You will find that they wont dry as puffy as when they are wet but will still have a puffy appearance and texture to them. 

Have you ever tried puffy paint before? Give it a go!