Young House Love

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Easy DIY Art With Food Coloring

All week I imagined a big office stencil reveal post here. Sadly, it’s not done yet. Oh DIY, why do you take such pleasure in toying with my emotions? Quit playing games with my heart, home improvement. But regardless of the fact that it’s not exactly a quick project, it’s looking awesome and totally going to be worth the blood, sweat, and tears (all three of which have occurred, incidentally). So hopefully by this weekend I’ll be doing some celebratory Rocky laps around the house (yes, with music blaring and fists in the air) and I can share photos & deets of the whole shebang on Monday. Woot! Until then, here’s a still-needs-to-be-finished wall (the bottom edge above the chair rail is still on the agenda):

Stencil16

In the meantime, how about a bloodless-sweatless-and-tearless project in the “quick, easy, and free” vein? See, John had this genius idea that we should try to get an ombre effect on paper (that we could then frame) using food coloring. Namely soaking it in food-colored water and waiting for it to travel up the page and potentially upping the intensity by adding more color to the water and letting it soak a bit less for a two-toned effect.

Food Coloring Hanging Paper

Yeah… that didn’t work at all. Zero travel-age back up the paper. Just wetness. Haha. So…

Food Coloring Hanging Close

… fail!

But we had some fun messing around with drips and drops, just to see what we liked. First I made an ode to Dexter with a few drops of red food coloring.

Food Coloring Blood Spatter

How fun would stuff like this look framed all over the house for a Halloween party? You could even take regular family photos and splash “blood” (aka: red food coloring spatters) over them to weird the observant people out at your little shindig (or use a red sharpie to create the effect on clear transparency paper and place it over them so as not to ruin the original prints/photos).

Anyway, then we started messing around with drips down the page but we really fell in love when we hit on this simple collection of dots (we were using regular old card stock by the way):

Food Coloring Wet Dots

All we did was make three dots of each color next to each other (squeezing a bit harder on the middle one so it was a wee bit larger).  Then we just waited for it to dry…

Food Coloring Close Up

… and framed it…

Food Color Close Up 2

Bam, an instant zero dolla (holla!) “food coloring masterpiece” for our always-changing gallery frame wall:

Food Coloring On Wall

I actually love how it picks up on the circles in the fabric that we framed a few feet up (in the middle). And it’s so fun to tell people who come over (and just stand in front of that wall for twenty minutes) that it’s just drops of food coloring. I can’t really explain why, but it looks kind of exotic and collector-ish. So it’s always fun to see the look on their faces when they realize it was done in five minutes with cupcake baking supplies.

Anyone else going to try their hand at some food coloring art? Or throw a Dexter-themed Halloween party? If so, I would LOVE to see pics of any and all faux blood spatter that you use as decor! Geek for life.

In other news, that might be the shortest post I’ve written in about a year. Hootie hoo for trying to meet some recently mentioned goals. We’ve definitely had our share of long beefy posts this week, so sometimes a quickie here or there feels nice too. Wait, that didn’t come out right.

Comments

  1. Carter says

    just did a chromatography lab in chemistry class tuesday night…weird…

    wanted to tell you i really like how you’ve updated us about the stenciling project as you’ve gone! gives us a good/real sense of how long it’s taking you and also lets us see how it progressed. thanks for all the hard work you do and all that you share with us!

    Reply

  2. Gloria @ A Little Paint says

    It wasn’t exactly “art” but when I brought home a can of expensive paint that had been mixed horribly wrong I used anything and everything to get it to a shade I loved, including food coloring. It’s now all over my bedroom walls!

    Reply

  4. elaine K says

    My kids loved to drop food coloring on paper and blow it with straws into “fireworks” Maybe Clara will like to do that one of these days!

    Reply

  5. Julia @ Chris loves Julia says

    We aren’t going Dexter…but we are throwing an awesome (hopefully!) costume party that we just announced yesterday. We had a blast making our invitations that drove the costume theme home:

    http://chrislovesjulia.blogspot.com/2011/09/our-costume-party-invitations.html

    Also…your luck finally rubbed off on me. We scored 2 GORGEOUS Ayers nightstands for $12.50 a piece! I thought “this must be what the Petersiks feel like.”

    http://chrislovesjulia.blogspot.com/2011/09/swank-stands.html

    Reply

  7. elizabeth says

    How often do you guys entertain? Do you have people over to eat a lot or just family visitors? Or family over to eat… I swear this was a better question in my head. I’m just curious since we don’t get a peek at that too often.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, entertain is too formal of a word. We have family or friends over about once a week I’d say. But rarely for fancy meals. Just spaghetti or game night.

      xo,
      s

  8. heather says

    If you haven’t seen it yet check out the melted crayon art (everywhere on pinterest I would think, I’ve seen it a few times). I loovee it.

    Reply

  9. Gloria @ A Little Paint says

    Oh and I wanted to add that my halloween costume last year was a couples costume, my husband as dexter with apron and syringe and me as his kill. I made a saran wrap minidress, surprisingly only took one package, completed with stab wound to the chest and slit on my cheek. It was awesome.

    Reply

  10. Momlady says

    Okay, gonna dig out the old art class techniques braincells.First off I’d consider starting with a fairly large piece of paper..cuz what you will probably want to do is crop the painting..culling the herd for the tastiest bits..so to speak. Wet your paper then take a brush..doesn’t have to be a fancy one..you can use the cheap-o flat soft bristle brushes from your favorite home improvement store..or for that matter you can use one of the foam ones…and dip it in non-diluted coloring agent of your choice(you can get some pretty cheap watercolor paints at Michael’s..I’d use the ones that come in a tube..though if you do that you will want to add a bit of water)oh, and have the paper/cloth flat on a slightly tilted board..then just paint a strip across the top..it will bleed down into the unpainted part of the paper. If you want it to have a two color effect or even the same color..just turn it 180 degrees and do the same thing but only wet the paper to just before the color from the last round..that way it won’t bleed too far. You can also try wetting paper and dropping primary colors near each other and so they can mix and give you a third color. I’ve done many of these over the years…it’s fun and you can really get some beautiful effects. Just remember to use more paper than you think you need for you picture/mat/frame..it’s a random thing and you’ll want to be able to crop for the best effect.

    Reply

  12. Lindsey Rivir says

    I’ve did that with wool yarn before but I used a dye specifically for yarn. I dipped the whole skein of yarn in the jar of dye then inch by inch and very slowly took it out to create the ombre effect. Then I knitted a scarf with the yarn, it turned out pretty neat.

    Reply

  13. Christa says

    When I was in College studying design, my instructor had us do this project with Watercolors where you splatter big, messy, wet drops on the paper and then blow on them through a straw to create paths where the water drops have traveled. Repeat until your whole paper is full of intricate little paths and a combination of vibrant/ muddied colors. It was actually really cool and fun for a Friday art class in the middle of summer… until she told us we had to outline every. single. line. with an ultra fine Sharpie. Cut to me spending 6 hours tracing the outline of thousands of microscopic watercolor squiggles. Not awesome. Anyway, your food color experiment (and the fireworks comment above) reminds me of some sort of toned-down version of that… which I might end up going home and trying now. It also helps me (on a small scale) sympathize with your frustration over the office wall stenciling. You know it will be worth it though! :)

    Reply

  14. Francesca says

    This is so simple but the result is really great. It reminded me of a craft I used to do at daycare with toddlers (hopefully this doesn’t offend you). Anyway, I thought you could try it with Clara. You’d need: liquid watercolors (or diluted food coloring except that stains),an eye dropper, and coffee filters. Show her how to use the eye-dropper to drop the watercolors onto the coffee filter (it’s good hand-eye coordination and fine motor development). The watercolors bleed together and create some tie-dye prettiness (as long as she doesn’t have too many colors 2-3 work best). It’d be a circle too and could look neat framed near your food coloring creation. Plus Clara would feel proud to see her work up on the wall, too. I’ve only done this with toddlers as young as 18 months old, so Clara might still be a tad young? It’s definitely a fun one-day craft though. :)

    Reply

  17. Tina Bland says

    So…my BFF just signed up for Pinterest (I told her she does not know life if she does not know Pinterest! lol) Anyways, your Pinterest handle came up as “someone to follow” or something like that! how fun is that?

    Reply

  18. amy c says

    Like everyone else has said, a pre-wet watercolor paper would probably have netted the result you were try for. Maybe next time. :) Also for next time, you could try some crayons for a little wax resist or throw some salt on the “paint” for a neat effect.
    Thanks for the simple project.

    Reply

  19. Erin says

    Did the all over wall stencil thing ourselves a few weeks ago. Loved the end result but it will be a LONG time before I undertake that again! The food coloring artwork is great in its simplicity…good idea that’s even better because its affordable.

    Reply

  20. Carter says

    Ok, hi. I’m the weirdo who pauses your Young House Life videos to see if I can make out what Clara is reading. Weird? Sure, but I have a feeling you would think that is somewhat cool?!

    Anyway…the real point is…these dots are amazing! Have you heard of the book Press Here by Herve Tullet? {Clara would like it!} It’s almost like you framed an illustration straight out of the book…which is a fun idea in itself. And obviously great artists think alike!

    I have a very new and VERY nerdy blog about graphic design in picture books, so this post and the desire to confess my YHL-book stalking habits left me no choice but to drop in and say hello:)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes! We actually have that book! Just got it as a gift from John’s mom. Clara loves it! And it might explain why she lightly taps the food coloring art too. There’s definitely a resemblance!

      xo,
      s

  22. Megan says

    Hi! I love this idea! My husband and I just bought our first house so I’ve been searching for cute (and cheap) things to put on the walls. Our whole house is echoing right now :)

    I have a totally random question- where do you guys keep your toaster oven and other small appliances? Right now we have our toaster on the counter. I’d rather use the space for something nicer looking but I wonder if it will be really annoying to constantly be pulling it out of a cabinet to use.

    Thanks!!
    Megan

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We got a stainless on a few years back it would be kind of cute on the counter (we also had a stainless blender that was out sometimes). But at this house we’ve been using them less (toddler = less time for things like toast, haha) so they’re kept in a base cabinet so we can break them out occasionally. But if you use them all the time I’d look for nice looking ones at a place like target or amazon.com and set them out on the counter. Good luck!

      xo,
      s

  24. Julie says

    Nobody’s commented on that last line? Either I’m the only one that immature or people have missed it – ha ha!

    And… how the heck did you draw blood stenciling???

    Reply

    • Julie says

      Ha – I meant how did you bleed while stenciling the dining room (blood/sweat/tears…) :) No need to answer, just wondered about it.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Duh! Haha. As for how I managed to bleed, let’s just say fatigue of climbing on and off of the desk got the best of me and I scraped my shin on the way up after the 500th time. Boo! But I lived to tell the tale.

      xo,
      s

    • KathyG says

      When hubs and I do a project, we have a saying…if I’m not wheezing (me) and you’re not bleeding, then we’re not working hard enough. ;-) Cheers to blood, sweat, and tears.

  30. Kathy says

    The stencil is gorgeous, your DIY food coloring art is fab and you are hysterically funny! So far, I’ve copied from you the paint the back of bookshelves (mine are red) and am in the process of covering a huge wall with white framed thingies. Thanks for all the great ideas!

    Reply

  31. Kristin says

    Aah, my science-loving heart screams TLC – meaning … thin layer chromatography, of course. Whad did you think? Haha.

    That’s an experiment we do with our freshman students:
    http://www.demochem.de/D-TLC-e.htm (acetone or alcohol should work too)
    Some others:
    http://library.thinkquest.org/19037/paper_chromatography.html
    http://www.ncsec.org/cadre2/team24_2/Plantpigments.htm
    http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/science-projects-for-kids-classifying-plants6.htm

    Have fun trying this out!

    Reply

  32. Colleen in MA says

    Enjoying reading all the advice posted that was learned from science experiments! The decor in my house is classic/urban/comfy/industrial. It works, trust me. Some science experiment art might work.

    In other news, had some flooring guys over today and I got to vent to them about how much I hate the bathroom floor and they got to show off their knowledge about all the cut corners and why is was so crappy. Win-win.

    Reply

  33. Shannon says

    Ooh, I get to use my chemistry degree! I know it’s been mentioned to use rubbing alcohol, but there is a special kind of paper used in thin layer chromatography (or paper chromatography). It’s thick absorbent paper usually made of cellulose. Amazon carries a brand called Whatman.

    Hmm, I think I need to show my daughter some science experiments this weekend. My parents never let me have a chemistry set growing up. That’s why I went to college for a chemistry degree!

    Reply

  34. Liz says

    Have you seen the Dexter blood slide suckers on Instructables? Awesomeness. So excited for the Season premier. (We actually ordered Showtime just so we can watch the new season without waiting). Also just finished season 2 of True Blood. And I totally dig your foodcoloring art. I can totally see that on a really big canvas in my house.

    Reply

  36. Kim says

    Liking the short posts! Clara will soon be making art like this that you can hang all over the house. Kid art is the best-and free. The hard part is deciding what to keep. But take it from someone who years ago didn’t cull enough; keep only the best, developmental ones, and hang them where you can enjoy them every day instead of storing them.

    Reply

  37. Karen says

    I have another suggestion for spreading the food coloring around the paper… Years ago when my kids were in pres-chool (they are all in college and beyond now!) we did a project with paper and … are you ready?… SNAILS! The kids loved it… you put a few drops of food coloring on the center of the paper and set the snail in the puddle, and you get the tracks all over the paper! Very pretty, especially with different colors. You can even do races with each person haveing a different color and snail! I bet Clara (and John) would LOVE it!

    Reply

  39. Amanda says

    I love the simplicity of the art (plus it is my favorite analogous color scheme! )

    We have a huge Halloween Party every year and we go all out…every room decorated, backyard full of gravestones, bonfire, food buffet, dance room, professional fireworks (which I think you guys would appreciate is free because our town puts them on every year for a falling leaves festival inthe park behind our house!)
    Anyways, we are thinking about decorating one room as a Dexter Kill room!! Plastic sheeting…a table, some pics (not gross ones like the barrel girls or anything) and maybe a dummy wrapped in saran wrap!! We are pretty excited about it..is that weird? :)

    Reply

  40. Regenia says

    Could probably accomplish some creepy blood effects on the family pictures just by using red sharpie or expo on the glass. Then just a quick swipe with a cloth slightly dampened with windex or alcohol should clean it right up. No time spent on taking down and rehanging the pics, and no risk of harming them either.

    Reply

  41. Demi says

    Love it! So simple yet cool looking. Totally off-topic question but have you dusted the light fixture in your bedroom ‘yet’? I bought the same one as you guys (and said hello to Karl and Ed when I was at Ikea!) back in April and for the first time since getting it, I ‘dusted’ it off with a blowdryer last week. There was just a thin layer that could only be seen when one was standing on a chair but yeah, just wondering how yours is hanging ;)

    Reply

  43. Jess says

    For your first art attempt, Koolaid would have been a great option! When it travels up the paper you can see all of the different colors used in the mix. I did a science project on this in elementary school… But maybe it should stay with the science project category…I think the dots made a better piece of wall art.

    Reply

  45. Katrina says

    I hope your arms won’t be too sore for a really good Rocky impression. And that John gets it on video. I just suggest that you wait until after Clara’s naptime…

    Can’t wait to see the final results of all of your hard work!

    Reply

  48. hunter says

    On the off chance you decide to play again, fabric works wonderfully well for this. Also (and this is high on the ‘smells great’ scale, which is unusual for home improvement projects) kool aid is a GREAT fabric dye. You need to use wool fabric (or other animal hair), but you can get sheets of wool felt quite cheaply. Then, just mix up your kool aid, and dip away…try folding or twisting it and just dipping tips and corners. Lots of fun!

    Reply

  49. Melanie says

    Well, I see a few people have given you some tips on the paper chromatography already (Google “paper chromatography art” for some more ideas on how to do it)! Since watercolours have been mentioned too, I thought I’d pass along some of my fav tricks for interesting watercolour textures.

    1. Tip the bristles of an old toothbrush in your (not TOO watery) paint, aim at the paper, and run your thumb along the bristles to make random little splatter effects.
    2. After putting a wash of color on the paper (again the amount of water has different effects), sprinkle a little salt on there. This is my fav.
    3. Texturize your paper before you start painting. Use whatever you want and just see what comes from it – wire brushes, the end of a paper clip, your fingernail, whatever!

    Reply

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