Make Beautiful Bubble Art

Materials you'll need

• Tempera or acrylic paint
• Dish soap
• Water
• Small bowl
• Straw
• White paper
• Paintbrush
• Black marker

 

Step-by-step tutorial

Step 1: Add ½ tablespoon of paint and ½ tablespoon of dish soap to a small bowl.

Step 2: Use a straw to stir the paint and soap together until fully combined. Then add ½ teaspoon of water and stir again.

Step 3: Place the straw into the mixture and blow gently through it to create a dome of bubbles above the rim of the bowl. Keep blowing until the bubbles are overflowing!

Step 4: Set a sheet of white paper on top of the bubble dome and gently press down so the bubbles touch the paper. Lift the paper off and set it aside to dry. Repeat with different colors to build up your design.

Step 5: Once the bubble prints are dry, use a paintbrush to add details — like green leaves around the bubble clusters to turn them into flowers.

Step 6: Outline your painted details with a black marker to make them pop, then write a special message on your artwork to finish your one-of-a-kind card!

Learn more

When you blow through a straw into soapy water, you're using your breath to stretch a thin film of soap and water into bubbles. Soap lowers the surface tension of water — the invisible pulling force that holds water molecules together — which lets the film stretch and flex instead of snapping apart. When a bubble touches the paper and pops, it leaves behind a ring-shaped print made of the pigment from the paint. Each print is totally unique, just like a fingerprint, because no two bubbles burst in exactly the same way.