Bubble Wrap Art Prints

Welcome to Earth Week! This is a time to celebrate the Earth and also see what we can do help the environment. Earth Week is an opportunity to talk to your children about respecting the environment and see what changes you and your family can make to help the Earth. Earth Day is April 22nd, and it’s the 50th anniversary, so make sure to do something special to celebrate, and we’re here to help with lots of fun activities!

For our first activity to celebrate Earth Week, we are reusing some everyday products as art supplies. As we are all ordering a lot these days you probably have some bubble wrap lying around. Today we are going to be using bubble wrap to make a print that looks like the Earth!

Printmaking is a very old art form. It takes advantage of the way liquid paint or ink will fill carved spaces. While it is common to carve your own materials during printmaking, using bubble wrap takes advantage of the existing raised surfaces of the bubbles to make an interesting texture while also transferring an image to paper.

Materials:

• Bubble wrap from mail packages (different sizes of bubbles will create different types of images)
• Tempera or Acrylic Paint
• Paper
• Scissors
• Paint Brush, fingers or cotton ball


Directions:

1. Cut Bubble wrap so that it’s as big as your piece of paper or smaller. It should be size that you want your print to be.
2. Take a minute to think about what you want your final project to look like, and try and figure out where colors should go on your bubble wrap
3. Cut Bubble wrap so that it’s as big as your piece of paper or smaller. It should be size that you want your print.
4. Add paint onto the bubble wrap, painting an image directly onto the bubble wrap using a paintbrush (your fingers, or a cotton ball)
5. Flip the bubble wrap over and put the paint side onto the paper, press gently
6. Remove bubble wrap in one motion slowly
7. Let painting dry and admire your creation!

More Fun:

  • Reuse the painted bubble wrap to make a series. After removing bubble wrap in step 6, put it on another piece of paper without adding more paint. Repeat as wanted. How does your image change?
  • Make Bubble Wrap Prints inspired by Andy Warhol:
    • Pick 4 different colors of paint
    • Divide your paper into quarters (fold hot dog style, then hamburger style)
    • Cut out 4 pieces of bubble wrap taht are each the size of quarter of the paper
    • Paint each piece of bubble wrap one of the 4 colors
    • Paint your hand one of the four colors, but it on a bubble wrap square that is a different color. Repeat until each cuccle wrap square has a different color handprint
    • Place the bubble wrap pieces, paint side down on your 4 sections of paper
    • Remove bubble wrap quickly
  • Watch this video about printmaking!