Here is a fun watercolor painting invitation you can set-up for your kids – create your own painted paper popsicles! Sometimes, just a simple change of paper shape makes painting even more interesting. My girls loved experimenting with swirls, stripes, dots, and speckles, then creating fun names for all their popsicle “flavors.” Let’s get painting!

Supplies for Colorful Painted Popsicles:

• watercolor paper (or other heavy paper)
• watercolors (pan or liquid)
• brushes
• craft sticks
• glue
• construction paper for background
• sticky labels (optional)

Cut a stack of popsicle shapes from the watercolor paper. This is a great project for experimenting with watercolors. If you want your colors to swirl together a lot, wet your paper with water before you add color. If you want more defined stripes, start with dry paper. Mix colors, add swirls, anything goes!

For a neat speckled effect, sprinkle your wet painted popsicle with salt. As the paint dries, the salt will absorb some of the paint and leave a cool design behind. Just brush off the salt when your popsicle is dry.

You can also let your popsicle dry, then go back and add more details, like polka-dots, small stripes, or swirls.

Once your popsicles are dry, it’s time to glue them to a construction paper background. We used a 9×12″ sheet of black paper. Glue craft sticks and painted popsicles using white glue. You might need to hold the paper down around the stick for just a minute while the glue sets.

If you’re inspired, create unique names for your custom popsicle flavors. Write your names on sticky labels and stick beneath each popsicle. My girls came up with names like Strawberry Sunset, Cherry Fireworks, Frozen Fruitcake, and Lime Berry. Yum!

Admire your work, then go make some real popsicles to celebrate! Happy creating!