Diy Paint Brush for Kids

Making your own diy paint brush is easy, fun, and free! It will get you and your kids out in nature and kids will have a blast collecting natural materials - And pine needles make fantastic homemade paint brushes! 

If you are looking for fun kids activities, check out these too:

• No-Mess Finger Painting Activity - Fun!
• Diy Paper Bookmarks - Made By Kids!
• Water Walking Experiment For Kids

Diy Nature Paint Brushes For kids

Diy paintbrushes can be made from a wide variety of different materials, many of which you probably already have in your yard. We used materials from evergreen trees for bristles. Have you ever made a diy paint brush out of cypress tree leaves? Or spruce needles? Time to make one.

Supplies To Make Natural Paint Brushes

These are the few supplies you'll need to make a diy paint brush:

• several twigs
• string, twine, or a piece of raffia
• materials for bristles (pine needles, spruce needles, cypress foliage, even tree buds, etc)
• optional: a rubber band

How To Make A Diy Paint Brush

First, for those of you who prefer video how-tos, here's a short video slide-show for you:

Now, in words:

1) Gather needles and leaves from trees of your choice - for bristles. Get several sticks that will become paintbrush handles. 2) Distribute the bristle material nicely around the stick and start attaching it by wrapping raffia (or twine) around.  

Small children will need assistance with this acitvity. To make it easier, you can use a rubber band to hold the bristle material together while the child wraps raffia around. {For a heavy-duty use, the rubber band alone will not be enough.} Very suitable for times when kids make paint brushes themselves without your help.

3) Wrap raffia (or twine) several times around the handle and the bristle material, then tie it firmly and cut off any excessive string.

4) You've just made your very own brush! Your kids will love the process and you might end up making tons of them!

Each paintbrush will create a different pattern in the painting. The more different brushes, the more variety in the process. You can explore a wide range of different brushstroke effects.

Hands-on learning for kids about textures - while having fun!

Bonus Tips For Using Diy Paint Brushes

When using bristle materials that will last longer (pine needles won't fall off soon!), you can even store some of DIY paintbrushes for next time! If your kids are at least a bit like mine, they will want to paint with those brushes again and again. All the time!

A fun activity encouraging kids to use their imagination and explore textures. Creativity in play!

Now get to work and make your own textured paint brushes, it's fun!

And a wonderful color mixing activity! If you want to see more about color mixing for kids, you'll probably love this water walking experiment we did a while ago.

Where To Store Art Supplies And Diy Brushes

These brushes can stored for even more hours of play! Make sure to dry them off well, then place in a container that is NOT air-tight. One option is a shoebox, but sometimes you'll need nicer storage for your crafting supplies. Don't we all sometimes 🙂 You can use this tote as an art caddy, it will make a perfect hideaway for paintbrushes, and keep them mold-free:

You'll find this project tote pattern in the shop. Such handy storage for crafting supplies!

Make sure to save this brush making tutorial to Pinterest for when you need a fun activity for kids: