Puffy Paint Thunderstorm Craft

After reading stacks of picture books about storms, my kids and I wanted to create a thunderstorm themed craft to go with the stories.

My first thought for making clouds, probably like yours, was cotton balls. I wanted them gray, so we tried painting them. 


Let me just say that painting cotton balls isn't fun - the wet cotton sticks to the paintbrush. Then, when I got it finished, it looked ugly.

So back to the drawing board.

Then I remembered homemade puffy paint. I found just the right super-easy, 2-ingredient recipe for it on Crafty Morning, and mixed some up.  It came out just right. 

Here is how you can get the results pictured...

Materials

Shaving cream
White glue
Tempera paint
Thick paintbrush
Waxed paper
Construction paper
Gold chenille stems (a.k.a. pipe cleaners)
Scissors
Watercolors
Googly eyes
Sharpie pen
Glitter (optional)

Instructions

1. Use watercolor to paint rain on a full sheet of construction paper.





See how awful the painted cotton balls are!

2. Cut out clouds from black construction paper. Lay them on waxed paper. 


3. Mix half glue and half shaving cream in a small dish. Swirl in a little light gray tempera paint (don't mix in completely).


4. Paint the clouds with a thick layer of puffy paint.


5. Sprinkle with glitter (I know. Glitter is evil. That's why I've listed it as "optional")


6. Let the paint dry flat 24 hours.


7. When the clouds are dry, glue them onto the collage.
   
   
   
   
   


8. Glue on googly eyes, and draw a mouth.


9. Cut each chenille stem in half. Bend each half back and forth to form lightening bolts.


10. Use a generous amount of glue to attach the lightening.

I'd love to see your adorable results. Feel free to share them on my Facebook page.