A few days ago I read this post on Teach Preschool about making your own dot paint dabbers, and immediately thought of ways I could make this with what I had (since I don’t have the make-up sponges she used.) Someone in one of the comments on her post suggested there might be a way to make it work using sponges.
Bingo! I have lots of those sponges with one scrubber side from the dollar store. It was super easy to rip off the scrubber layer (and I kept those aside since they’re still good for scrubbing!)
I took some bottles, rinsed them out, then put in some paint and water. My paint is cheap stuff, kind of thin to start with, so I think I put too much water. It worked, but next time I’ll keep it a bit thicker I think.
Then I put some hot glue around the inside of the bottle neck, rolled up a sponge, and shoved it in as far as I could before the glue dried. I cut off a little bit from the top of the sponge so that it was just a tiny bit bulging over the bottle neck. Make sure you wipe the neck of the bottle dry before you put the glue on!
A bit of shaking to mix the paint and water, and a few dabs to get the paint through the sponge, and voila!
Annie made some lovely circles.
Tobi discovered that by “banging” the dabber onto his paper, he made fun splats! (Next time, I’ll put his art smock on.)
Like I said, my paint was a bit too thinned out, but overall this worked great. The kids had fun, it still made nice little dots, and I can put the lids back on the bottles. The only down-side is that I can’t refill the bottles, but since these were headed for the recycle bin anyways, it’s not a big loss. I’ll just make sure to keep some on hand when these ones are nearing empty.
This is great!!!
Thanks so much for sharing!!
Tiffany
These turned out great and what I found is there really are fun to play with!!
Brilliant idea! Following you on GFC, hope you'll visit me as well at http://www.chestnutgroveacademy.blogspot.com
I love this!! I'm totally going to try this with my day care kids, thank you for sharing! Have a wonderful week š
great idea!! I am definitely gonna try this!
http://ramblingsmom.com/2011/07/make-your-own-dot-dabbers.html
Here is my version the kids had so much fun! Hope you like them!
I love those paint dobbers but they are too expensive. Thanks for the idea on how to make my own!!
Awesome Idea! I’ll definitely have to keep these in mind for when our store bought ones run out. I love the fact that you can still put the caps on!
What a great idea for making your own dabbers! I bought my kids some last christmas which they LOVE but I was disappointed to find that you can’t take the tops off and re-fill them. Thanks for sharing!
I love your variation on what Teach Preschool did. Good idea hot gluing the sponge inside! Thanks for sharing on It’s Playtime.
LOVE IT! š I may have to try this soon! š gives me a reason to go buy some soda too! š LOL
Great idea! Thank you for the tips!