Squeezy Bottle Painting

Make some beautiful art work with squeezy bottle painting, using this simple DIY glitter paint recipe and some icing bottles! Great for fine motor skills and exploring a favourite medium in a new and creative way.

We found these squeezy bottles for adding icing/ frosting to cakes and thought they would be great fun for playing and creating with. Plus, the mechanism of squeezing makes for a great mini-muscle work out, so the fine motor skills can be developed at the same time as having fun and creating some art! 

The girls made some easy, DIY glitter paints without any measurements, as a way to experiment and have fun with concoction making. They used roughly a cup of plain flour and a small measure of water, then mixed it until all of the lumps had gone and it was smooth and runny like a thick paint paste.

We tipped the mixture into three containers and into each one they stirred a teaspoon of brightly coloured powder paint, then huge sprinkling of glitter in a colour to match each one. Once thoroughly mixed they were ready to use!

We spooned the coloured paints into each icing bottle container and screwed the lids on tightly, then moved our activity outside!

We used large pieces of brightly coloured card to experiment squeezing the paint onto. Because it was nice and thick, not as runny as regular paint, the DIY paint squirted onto the surface and mixed nicely, merging colours and dripping into lovely patterns across the surface.

It took some practise to get the bottle mechanism right and it was great for fine motor skills and co-ordination, not to mention concentration.

As the paints started to dry they remained thick and slightly raised off the paper, similar to puffy paints yet using the sunshine to set the paint instead. The resulting patterns and colour mixing was beautiful!

It will be fun to try these bottles again, perhaps for water play or using another, thicker sensory play substance at the messy play table. We shall share about our experiences when we try them!

What they are learning as they play: 

Creativity: Mixing paint, combining colours, using materials in a new way, using a range of tools to express themselves

Physical: fine motor control and coordination, using everyday tools, squeezing and releasing, mixing, pouring, scooping, transferring, working on different planes and angles

Science: mixing together ingredients to create a new substance/ material

The children are currently aged 5, 4 and 2.

See our full Art and Craft Activities archives here, for loads more ideas of things to to do together!