Raised Salt Painting Craft for Kids

Kids will have a lot of fun creating their own raised salt paintings and watching the colors travel across the glue on their unique designs. This simple and fun process art activity is perfect for kids of all ages and is easy to customize for different holidays and seasons!

We love process art activities around here! They are low stress and I love seeing how my kids decide to create with the different materials and prompts I give them. If you loved our fizzy paintings with baking soda you will also love this fun salt art activity! Let’s get started!

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Materials

Watercolor paper or cardstock
Salt
White Glue
Liquid watercolors or food coloring mixed with water
Small paintbrushes or droppers
A tray for easy clean up

How to Make Raised Salt Paintings

First create your design or doodle with your glue on your watercolor paper.

My older daughter had a lot of fun making snowflakes, rainbows and hearts, while my preschooler preferred to create squiggles with her glue!

Put your paper on top of a tray and sprinkle table salt on top of the glue while it is still wet. Gently shake the salt to cover your glue completely and shake the excess salt onto the tray.

Now add color! You can use a small paint brush to gently dab the liquid watercolor paint onto the salt-covered glue lines.

Another way to add color would be to use a dropper and add a few drops of color on top of the glue. My kids loved watching the colors travel down their glue designs and combine with each other.

Let your paintings dry overnight and wake up the next morning to beautiful, crystalized paintings!

Tips and Variations

Using droppers is a great way to work on fine motor skills with younger kids.
Add a small science lesson and talk about how salt absorbs water and teach your kids about capillary action.
Keep everything on a tray for easy clean up!