Watercolor round 2! I showed my girls several different techniques to do with watercolor the other day and they all turned out beautiful! I wrote about this one and wanted to share another one with you that we did. This technique uses salt to create beautiful effects and it is a must try when using watercolors. It creates a sparkly, glittery effect with amazing texture.

The girls started by creating a painting of their choice with liquid watercolors on watercolor paper. This step needs to be done fairly quickly because the next step, using the salt, needs to be added when the paper is still wet. If you use traditional watercolor cake pans just make sure the child uses enough water and swirls the brush around in the color for at least a few seconds.

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I love that Lila decided to add some of her own techniques on her own here, such as flicking, to this painting. Notice the intense pigment of the watercolor? Liquid watercolor creates the best color. We still use the watercolor cake pans for everyday “free paint” use but for a project I’m initiating, a gift or card for someone, or for something I will want to frame I use the liquid watercolors. So worth it!

Next, is the salt. Kids LOVE this part! Sprinkle a little on but not too much in one area. I have always used the coarse Kosher salt that can be found in your grocery store but I’ve heard that regular table salt works as well.

Willa went a little overboard with her salt! She loved grabbing fistfuls of salt and dumping it on her paper!

Put the paintings aside and let them dry. While drying, the salt will absorb the liquid. Once they are completely dry, you can then scrape off the salt to reveal the cool effects. (I usually let them dry for a day but Willa’s took extra long due to the amount of salt she put on hers. The paper was still pretty wet for a couple of days!).

Finished results:

I was kind of worried that Willa’s wasn’t going to turn out with all the salt she added but it actually turned out great! I LOVE the texture on hers!