Mitten Salt Painting

Getting this one in right under the line. It’s the last day of January, so why not celebrate with a cute salt-painted mitten project complete with the tag line “S-mitten with January!”?

If you’ve never salt painted before, you’re missing out. It’s extremely easy, cheap, and has the coolest effect. Basically, when you touch the watercolor to the salt, the color will run down the line on both sides. My kids both LOVED it.

My four year old was able to mostly follow the lines with the glue, but my two year old just made glue globs all over the paper. Both kids had a blast, so I’m thinking it was a win both ways.

Salt Painting, Step-by-Step

Materials

printable
Elmer’s glue
table salt
watercolors and brush

Instructions

Start by printing off the free printable here.

I recommend putting the paper on something to catch the excess salt. We used cookie sheets.

Then, use the Elmer’s glue to follow the lines and dots of the mittens.

Next, shake table salt over the glue until all the glue has been completely covered.

The last step is the fun part. Take those watercolors, get the brush nice and wet (it works better with a lot of watercolor on the brush) and touch it to the salt. The color will immediately flow in both directions.

It took ours about 8 hours to dry, and the downside to this project is that the salt will shed a bit even after it’s dry. The kids didn’t mind, and hey, I have to sweep the floor 20 bajillon times a day anyway 🙂