How to Create a Simple Salt Painting

This fun and simple craft only calls for a few materials but will lead to tons of fun. Water color paint, salt (yep, just regular salt) and glue are the main items you will need to create a salt painting.

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So, just what is salt painting?

Salt painting is just what it sounds like. The salt and glue give a textured look to the art work. The water colors give a vibrant look to the final masterpiece.

Your child can either create their own designs or use a simple coloring sheet to get started. Since you are using water colors, it helps to use thicker paper for the paintings.

What You Need for Your Salt Painting

• Simple coloring page printed on white thick cardstock paper (recommended)
• Download coloring page here (optional)
• Watercolor paint palette
• Water
• Paintbrush
• White glue
• Salt

A Step-by-Step Guide to Painting with Salt

STEP 1:

If using a coloring sheet, trace around the image on the coloring page with glue. If you’re creating your project free-hand, “draw” your simple design with the glue. You can also draw the image with a pencil and then trace over it with glue. You’ll want glue in all the areas that you want to paint. 

STEP 2:

Sprinkle glue with salt as you would with glitter. We found that tapping the paper helped to settle the salt into any grooves.

Next you will want to gently lift the paper and shake to remove the excess salt.

STEP 3:

Dip your paintbrush in water and blend with watercolor to soften it. Saturate the paintbrush with watercolor. Then, gently touch the paintbrush to the salt. The color will spread. (This is our favorite part to watch!) Have fun with your colors and create different patterns.

STEP 4:

Allow the picture to dry completely before displaying or gifting.

There are so many ways to do salt painting for kids. See how different it looks using black cardstock as the background for fireworks.