Monster blow painting is such a fun art project for kids! First use a straw to blow liquid paint around a piece of paper. Then add googly eyes and other details to transform the colourful paint splatters into monsters!

This simple process art activity gives such cool results, and you’ll end up with a unique design every time! Use your imagination to create your monsters and make them as friendly, cute, silly, or even as scary as you’d like. It’s such a fun craft for Halloween or anytime of year!

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Helpful Tips:

1. Poke a hole in the straw with a pushpin or thumb tack so that younger kids can blow through the straw but not suck up any paint.
2. Cover your table with a drop cloth and/or work on a tray so that the mess is contained.
3. Use more drops of paint at one time to create larger monsters!

What paint is best for blow painting?

We used undiluted liquid watercolour paint. It’s easy to spread this paint, and it creates very vibrant looking monsters! You can also use food colouring (either watered down, or not), but the colours won’t be quite as intense.

Paints that are already watery work the best, but you can also water down tempera paint until it’s very thin and use that. Thicker paint is too hard to spread with a straw, especially for younger kids.

What details can I draw to make blow paint monsters?

We kept it simple with googly eyes and tentacles, but there are so many different types of details you can draw on your monster.

• Appendages: Draw arms, tentacles, horns, legs, and/or feet.
• Face details: Give your monster eyes, a mouth, teeth, or eyelashes.
• Body details: Try drawing freckles or scales on your monster’s body!
• Accessories: Is your monster wearing a hat, bowtie, or hair bow? Your monsters can even wear shoes or gloves!
• Background scene: Older kids might want to add even more details around the monster. Is it sitting in a chair, fishing by a lake, or playing soccer?

What paper is best for making monster blow painting?

You need to use a thicker paper, like cardstock, that can absorb a bit of water. Regular printer paper will wrinkle quite a bit, and might even tear if too much paint is added.

We tried using watercolour paper. But because it’s meant to absorb water, the paint started soaking into the paper right away. So we couldn’t get the paint to spread as far, making it harder to create the monster shapes. The colours also weren’t as bright and the paint made little “veins” on the paper as it dried.

Both cardstock and watercolour paper will work for blow painting, but we definitely preferred the cardstock, even though it does warp a bit as it dries.

How can I drop paint onto the paper to make blow painting monsters?

If you’re using liquid watercolour paint you should be able to drop the paint through the small hole in the lid. If you dilute your paint into a bowl there are a few ways you can drop the paint onto the paper. The simplest of these methods is using an eye dropper or pipette.

If you don’t have an eye dropper, you can also use a small spoon to drop the paint (we recommend 1/4 teaspoon so you don’t add too much paint at one time). You can even use a paintbrush, though it’s a lot harder to control where the drops land this way.

Use simple materials to make this monster blow painting craft. It’s so cool to paint with straws and experiment with colours, patterns, and shapes. It’s also a great way to improve fine motor skills and oral motor development in younger kids.

Try experimenting with different blow painting techniques. Hold the straw at different angles and distances. You can also use a shorter straw, a wider straw, or even move the straw around as you blow!

Here’s even more monster craft ideas:

Folded Paper Monsters

Coffee Filter Monsters

No-Sew Felt Monster Pattern

Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!