This novel painting method makes a lovely piece of art. You can either mount the artwork on the wall for display, or use them like we did for Mother’s Day cards!

To start, I filled a few plastic cups with a little water, then added about 5 drops of food coloring to each, resulting in rich, bold colors.

Set these “paints” out for your toddler, along with two novel “canvases” for painting: paper towels and coffee filters.

The colors bleed through the tissue of these papers in such beautiful ways. Veronika loved mixing the colors, too, which meant our bright primary colors soon turned to new shades.

We decided we liked the result on the paper towels better than on the coffee filters, so once the color had dried, I glued these onto construction paper backgrounds.

Add a note for your recipient, and it’s ready to send. We’re wishing a happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!