Fun with Diffusing Paper

It’s Friday night and I told the munchkins they could stay up late.  Normally I would turn on a movie and let them veg themselves into sleep.  Well, oldest is on restriction from TV so that’s off the table.  What to do … what to do.  Weeell, I recently picked up some Color Diffusing Paper * from Amazon and have been wanting to try it out.  oh.so.fun. We are going to be playing with this stuff for a while.   I am having a vision of the future… one where everything is decorated with diffusing paper for a few weeks.

This paper is like sheets of coffee filter paper.  It is light weight and super absorbent it works beautifully with liquid water colors *.  I found some images from the good ol’ internet and drew them onto the diffusing paper with a black sharpie.   I wasn’t sure if it would work, or if the sharpie ink would bleed.  Good news – it works.  You’ll get nice clean lines.  whew.  Then mixed the watercolors and used droppers * to apply.

Here’s what I learned:

The kids love to use droppers.  No brainer, I know.  But really  – wow.  Their excitement level when up 5 notches when they saw the droppers.

The sharpie acts as a resist.  As long as you don’t use too much liquid, you will be able to “color in the lines”.  If you want to. It’s a beautiful mess to drop randomly and watch it spread.

Yes, the little ones especially, will use a lot of liquid on their paper.  Good news – it will dry.  I like to keep an eye on what they are doing to make sure they don’t turn their artwork into a brown mess.   My 5yo actually used the most, as he insisted on clearing his pallet of all the colors before he could declare completion.  I expected the paper to wrinkle up, and it did a bit, but seemed to straighten out as it dried.  When it was about 80% I weighted it down to be sure.  We will see how it looks in the morning.

What else can we make with this stuff? Banners for spring!  Easter cards for the neighbors! Flowers to decorate the playroom! This will be fun.