Making natural watercolour paints

So last week we decided (on a whim) that we would make paint from flowers and plants that we found on our nature walk - see weekending post. We talked about the kinds of flowers that we'd seen around the neighborhood - not too many at that point. There were enough to get a decent array of colours though.

Once picked, we brought our flowers home and washed them. We always wash sticks, and plants that we bring inside regardless.  Then we separated them. Teachable moments such as French vocab, and discussions about which flowers would produce light or darker paints was discussed.

HOWEVER, there was a problem; the kids just wanted to get down to business- which was good and bad. It was good because the children were excited, but bad, because it takes a bit of time to get results. *Sigh*.

I wasn't happy with the fact that we had 2 violets. No need to fuss. It just so happened that we had a bouquet of flowers on the table. So I picked the pink flower from our bouquet to add a more vibrant colour...

We pulled off the petals and placed them in baby food jars. We smushed and mashed them a bit, and placed them in the jars that had about a tablespoon or so of hot (not too hot) water. Then we left the flowers in the jars for a couple of hours.

Then voila...
I am showing the actual picture of the "paint" before I edited the photos to make them more vivid for the blog:)

Real pic...

 edited... 

The children's work...