Anything that gets our kids (and ourselves) away from a screen these days is a win. And we reward ourselves bonus points when that thing involves trying something new, getting creative, or when it promotes learning of any kind. Tea painting does all three. And probably best of all, it’s easy to set up.
This activity is part of the weekend-long Stash Summer Camp schedule. If you’re on the hunt for a fun-filled weekend, we’ve planned one all out for you!
Tips to start
- Boil water and put 3 tea bags in 4 oz water. Let tea bags sit for 2 hours.
- Your tea should be completely cooled before you start painting.
Materials
- Paintbrushes
- Paper (watercolor paper will work best as it’s porous and can handle many layers of tea paint without buckling)
- Water
- Tea:
Organic Gold Cup Chai - light yellow
Super Irish Breakfast - brown
Acai Berry - purple
Before you get creative
- Before starting, test how the teas look on your paper. One of our pink teas actually turns blue on paper!
- Experiment with how colors come together when you layer them on top of each other.
- How does the paper react when you layer tea?
- How does the tea react when you add more water to it on paper?
Ready to experiment
- Try sprinkling dried tea leaves on top of your paper and dabbing water on them. Brush off the leaves after the paint has dried to see the effect!
- Use whole wet tea bags as stamps.
- Feel the flow and come up with an abstract shape with the tea, then use pen or markers and ”finish” the painting by drawing.
- Place whole, unsteeped tea bags on paper and spray with water.
- Tea taking too long to dry? Use a blow dryer to get the layers to dry faster.
What other things can you use as art supplies? Coffee? Wine? Salt?