Make beautiful bubble painting Hydrangea flowers! Fun DIY dish soap paint recipe. Great kids art activity & easy beginner watercolor ideas!
This may just be one of the easiest and most fun watercolor flower painting projects, because you don’t even have to “paint”! Love blowing bubbles? Love to paint Hydrangea flowers? You will love today’s bubble painting hydrangea flowers!
When I first stumbled upon an image of bubble paint hydrangeas on Discount School Supplies website, I just knew I HAVE to try it! I had so much fun and made the paintings in 2 ways because I don’t want to stop!
Easy bubble paint recipe
IMPORTANT: use paint and dish soap that are labeled Non Toxic !
( Some of the helpful resources are affiliate links. Full disclosure here. )
You can buy bubble paint, but it’s very easy to make your own! I tested a few mixes, and the one I am really happy with is 1 part (by volume) non toxic acrylic paint, 1 part non toxic dish soap, and 2-3 parts water depending on how thick the paint is. I used this cardstock, which held up great!
Step 1: mix bubble paint
Find a dish to mix the paint. Mine is about 6″x9″, and 2″ deep. Mix the bubble paint. Now let the fun begin!
Take a straw and blow some air into the bubble paint mixture. You will see bubbles forming on the surface.
When you get a clump of fat bubbles, take a piece of paper and gently press it onto the bubbles. The goal is to let the paper touch the bubbles, but not the mixed paint below.
You can repeat a couple of times to get the desired shapes and colors!
I used 2 colors here, one dish has rose pink, the other purple.
A shallow dish works well because the bubbles can come up easily, and when we press the paper onto the bubbles, the paper won’t touch the rim of the dish and cause smudging.
Step 2: make bubble painting Hydrangea flowers
Now our Hydrangea flowers are starting to take shape! It’s time to add some details.
For one of the paintings, I painted some watercolor leaves in various shades of green, cut them out and glued them around the blossoms.
I felt the leaves need to pop a bit more, so I used a pen and added some details, super easy though, just draw some lines! Now the painting looks a lot more finished. 🙂
In the other bubble painting variation, I first Painted some stems and leaves using watercolor.
I like using brushes with a nice pointed tip for watercolors, they are great for washes, and for finer details.
Again, use a pen and add some rich details with lines and dots.
My favorite art pens! I used #01 here.
Now a little gift / craft project- make your own sets flower greeting cards with these free printable cards!
Make your own sets flower greeting cards with free printable cards!
If you love the idea of painting with unconventional and fun techniques, here are a couple of tutorials you will enjoy –
Paint a Watercolor Fall tree in 10 minutes!
Paint easy watercolor flowers!
Hope you enjoyed today’s little project! Happy creating! 🙂
Lynn
Beautiful!
My grandson wants to try it!
ananda
his will be gorgeous! xo
Liz weiss
You are amazing. I have wanted to try painting and you are the spark that will get me started.
ananda
happy painting Liz!! =)
Cherie
oh noooooooooooooo another lovely idea for me to try. I need more hours in the day
ananda
thank you cherie! i need 48hr/day too! =)
Jeanine
How beautiful! What a great idea! My girls would be super thrilled to do this!
Lee Anne
Ahh this is SO cute!!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
xoxo
Lee Anne
http://lifeinatx.com/
Angelic Sinova
Okay, so I have to do this IMMEDIATELY! How cute is this?! I can’t wait to try this. I only hope mine come out as beautiful as this <3
ananda
yay have fun angelic! xx
Lix
That is such a cool method and the results are gorgeous!
Heather
I have done bubble painting with my daughter, but nothing this lovely came of it! Maybe mom needs to do some bubble painting of her own! These are great! 🙂
ananda
yes mom needs to play more! xx
Shipra
LOVE how it turned out – VERY 3D! Super cute! I definitely want to try this with my kiddo! <3
ananda
awesome! have fun! xx
alyssa
This is way too nifty! I must give this a try! <3
Sabrina Alery
Wow!! What a lovely and super fun craft! I will definitely be trying this with the kids over the weekend. Thanks so much for sharing 😉
ananda
have fun sabrina and thank you for visiting! =)
Shannon Peterson
Oh my gosh, I’m totally pinning this – GORGEOUS! And they actually *look* pretty easy too!
karissa
This is so beautiful and looks like a lot of fun to do.
jamie@makeuplifelove
OMG this is so cool looking. I love how creative it is, and it is super gorgeous on the outcome. Thanks for sharing this!!
Michelle Snow
Oh my gosh. This is seriously amazing, I am blown away. You always do such amazing things. I wish I had a tenth of your talent.
Chelsea
I love how this turned out! You are SO talented!
Local Adventurer (Las Vegas Blog)
oh wow! these turned out great!! who knew you could do that with bubbles.
Amy H.
Fun, fun, fun!
Beth@FrugalFroggie
My son got to do something like at school last year. It looks like fun.
Chrissy
These are so pretty! What a fun project. Thanks for sharing!
Natalie
This is SUCH a cute method! I’m not exactly artistically inclined (my students used to make fun of me when I tried to draw stuff on the board back when I was teaching!!), but I love arts and craft. Definitely trying this!
ananda
have fun natalie! =)
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen
Ananda, I hope you are ready for company, because I’m totally coming over! You do the funnest projects – and you even seem to make it do-able for the rest of us! I would never attempt anything like this, but with the tutorial, I just might give it a try. So pretty!
ananda
awesome! we will have soap bubbles for lunch and spiced shrimp for dinner! xo
Chelley @ AisForAdelaide
This is beautiful! What stunning and creative art!
Lindsay
All of these are so pretty!! I really need to have more art around my home!
Emma Harris
You are so clever, I love this x
The Daydreamer
“Unconventional and fun techniques” – well said. And they are rekindling my hopes 🙂 This would also be great to do with kids, though my “eldest” (she’s three) might be tempted to swallow the bubbles rather than blowing them… hem…
ananda
i was tempted to swallow the bubbles too! =)
yaitza
This is so pretty and does not seem hard to do either.. Thanks for sharing ;o)
Brenda
Wow! These look simply incredible!
Sally
I love your creativity and that you share all your ideas and discoveries. 🙂
Jiska de Vries
hi there,
I just tried this out, because it looked so good and nice how you did it.
But it didn’t work out for me ;(.
I don’t get how to make the bubbles grow big. By me they only stayed small 🙁 and tried it many times.
I also don’t get how you put it on a paper?
Could you please help me out wiht this?
Really want to understand this…
Thanks in advance!
Regards,
Jiska
ananda
hi jiska, paints are different in consistency, if the bubbles are too small, try equal part paint, soap, and water. when the mixture is thicker, the bubbles can get bigger =)
just press the paper gently on top of the bubbles and lift off, that should work!
Camille L
Thank you so much for the tutorial, I’ve been trying to do this for many times now and I failed, my mistake is that I only put a little bit of dish soap.
ananda
thanks camille! thickness is the key! hope it works now =)
Melissa Boyce
This is beautiful and cannot wait to try with my daughter. She loves art!! Thank you for sharing
ananda
thank you melissa!! enjoy!!
مریم
عالیه.GOOD
Jenna Michelle Pink
This is great 🙂 So fun and effective :-).. Thinking of adapting this sightly as an art activity for my child (when he can be trusted to not slurp up the bubbles) I am sure he would love it 🙂
I have featured this tutorial in a floral craft inspiration list on my blog to share with my readers 🙂 http://www.jennamichellepink.co.uk/2015/06/11/12-fabulous-floral-craft-ideas/
ananda
thank you so much jenna!! xx
Patricia
HI. My colors are not coming out nearly as dark as the ones in the picture are. Any suggestions? Thanks!
ananda
i would use darker colors, and repeat with more layers =)
Gwen
I just discovered your page and I am so in love! You have Talent – thank you so much for sharing! There are so many ideas here I’d like to try! This one my kids will definitely adore. Thank you for the inspiration
ananda
hi gwen, thank you so much for your kind words! thrilled to have you here! 🙂
Sharon
I’ve been looking for an art project to do with my daughter’s 1st grade class, this looks perfect! Do you know of the bubble/paint mixtures can be made in advance? Thanks!
ananda
Hi sharon, if you cover the mixture it will still work the next day. Just stir it up. I would not store it for too long 🙂
Mimi
Hi! I am thinking about doing this as a 1 day project in my VBS. How long does it take for the bubbles to dry on the paper? I am planning on painting leaves on white paper before hand and have them cut out the leaves themselves.
ananda
they dry within an hour 🙂 happy painting!
Mimi
Ok great! This will be on my art program this year! So excited! Thank you!
Linda Humphries
They turned out so beautiful
Jessica Gensmer
What brand dish soap did you use? I used Dawn. No matter what, I could not stir in the shallow dish enough to create big bubbles. I tried shaking in a shaker and pouring it into a dish, which made the big bubbles but they went down right away:( I LOVE this craft and am determined to make it work! Ha:)
Thanks so much for a completely beautiful and unique DIY! I can’t wait to have a successful batch!
ananda
hi jessica, i use trader joes lavender dish soap =) maybe try a little more soap to water ratio?
Jessica Gensmer
You know what?! I missed the part about using a straw to blow bubbles into it. Doy. I will try again;)
ananda
that should make a big difference! 🙂
Nan
Thank you for sharing! I’m using the bubble art with my Pre-k4 class for Art in the Park( an annual ” Muffins with Mom event”.
ananda
thank you Nan! happy painting! =)
Kristine Marie
The bubble painting looks like so much fun!! As well as the fall tree with water colors♡! Is there a video perhaps, of you showing us how? Did I scroll right by it? I’m excited to try but unfortunately I’m more of a visual type of person and a video would be wonderful????????,, if not that’s okay I will still give it a try w mu songs who love to paint too????????.
Thank you for your time,
Kristine Marie
ananda
hi kristine! i have a spring tree watercolor ( super fun! ) with video- http://www.apieceofrainbow.com/spring-trees-watercolor-painting/. these don’t have video, but it’s a good idea, i will consider making some! =)
Joanna
This bubble DIY tutorial is awesome. You read my mind. Thanks for sharing this.
Ivory
Never seen or heard of this before, but I love, love, and I say love this idea/designs. Thanks for sharing
annie_m
Hello! I have tried this fun project, but my bubbles don’t pop. They just stay there and eventually leave big splotches.
Can you help me? Also, is there a video tutorial for the bubble painting?
Thanks,
Annie
ananda
hi Annie! that usually happens when the bubbles are not big enough. try make them as big as you can, maybe add a tiny bit more soap too. 🙂