We all know this scenario only too well. Child wants to paint. Mother agrees. Mother lays out newspaper over entire kitchen table, gets out paints and puts a small amount of water into a glass. It all looks harmless enough. Fifteen minutes later the child is soaked to the skin, the painting and the newspaper have formed a kind of papier mache mush and there are puddes on the kitchen floor. Mother swears that only crayons will be used for future pictures.
Sound familiar? Well, with this super-easy DIY no-spill water jar those days are gone. Roll on mess-free picture painting with your children.
Here’s what you need:
A jam jar with a metal lid that screws on tightly
A screwdriver
A paintbrush
Water
Optional: A felt tip pen for writing on glass
Step 1: Screw the lid onto the jar.
Step 2: Use the screwdriver to punch a hole in the centre of the lid. Remember to make it large enough for your child’s paintbrush to fit through.
Step 3: Remove the lid and use the screwdriver to flatten the sharp metal bits against the underside of the lid. The last thing you want is to avoid spilling water only to create sharp edges for small fingers to cut themselves on! Blood is not only thicker than water, it also leaves stains.
Step 4: Fill the jar with water until it comes about 1/3 the way up the jar. Screw the lid back on and turn the jar onto its side. If water spills out, it is too full. If water doesn’t spill out, you have done everything right. Congratulate yourself.  |
| Yes, there is water in this jar. More importantly, it is staying in the jar. |
Step 5: If you haven’t got the water level right, just do a bit of trail and error work till you get it to the right level.
Step 6: Mark the maximum water level on the side of the jar with a waterproof felt pen.
Yep, the spilling of water at paint time is very familiar here. Will have to give this a go. Thanks for the tip 🙂
#twinklytuesday
You're welcome Janine. Anything to ease the workload! Less spilling, more chilling 🙂
Oh we haven't moved onto rinsing yet…he currently has a paintbrush for each of the four colours! Unfortunately some of the green ended up on the sofa – have you got a magic solution for that too??!! Luckily, it' an old sofa! Remind me not to bother buying any new ones while I have a toddler! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
Mine would never have managed not to mix the colours! Sorry, no magic solution to cleaning the sofa, unless a massive throw helps. That is our solution – three huge white fleece throws and some lovely cushions create the illusion that we have a gorgeous sofa. Underneath it all, it is blotched yellowy brown. But we are not replacing it till Number Three is at least six and there is a reasonable chance that it won't get wrecked with stains 🙂
Thanks for popping over to read this.