Kids will love this sensory art activity. All you need is shaving cream, food colouring and popsicle sticks.
We enjoyed another wonderful art technique the other day, creating sensory art with shaving cream and food colouring. You may have seen our Giant Shaving Cream Magna-Doodle a couple of weeks ago when we covered our 6 dollar, thrift-shop table in shaving cream and doodled the morning away.
This time, at the suggestion of two of my lovely facebook followers, we added a couple of things that took the activity to a whole new level: food colouring and craft sticks.
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Our sensory art “ingredients”:
- Shaving Cream
- Food Coloring
- Jumbo Craft Sticks
- work surface
Added suggestion: bucket of water and a towel
I started by covering our table-top with shaving cream. Don’t worry about buying expensive shaving cream. This stuff was not. It dribbled and dripped out of the container, but hey, we weren’t looking for a close shave here, we were just looking to get messy.
I sprinkled a few drops of food colouring on top of the shaving cream and we were good to go!
Then I passed around some large craft sticks. Using craft sticks until the food colouring is mixed in is a good idea. It prevents having to put your hands directly into the food colouring.
The hooligans scraped and doodled and spread the food colouring around in the foam, and it quickly began to look verrrry cool!
And very inviting! It wasn’t long before they ditched the craft sticks and got their hands into it. 
And they had a great old time, smooshing and smearing the colours all together. 
When the shaving became all one colour, I would simply dribble some more on top, and add a few new drops of food colouring, and they’d start all over again.
We continued adding layer upon layer o food colour and shaving cream until the can was empty.
A bucket full of water and towel made clean up easy, and was handy for those who wanted to rinse while they were painting.
More Shaving Cream Activities for Kids
Life-size Shaving Cream Magna-Doodle
Marbleized Painting with Shaving Cream
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
jaime
this looks like fun! we have yet to play in shaving cream, maybe we should:-)
Joyce @Childhood Beckons
This looks like a lot of fun! And it really is gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing!
happyhooligans
Thanks, Joyce. This one was very, very cool!
Stephanie @ Twodaloo
We are TOTALLY digging into this one soon- my kids will love it!!
Lauren
Add food coloring to anything and it makes it more fun! Never thought of this. Thank you for sharing at our Pinteresting Party! Totally pinning for another day!
Chris
A couple of things I have discovered with similar activities: we use the shaving cream for sensitive skin, because I have had children say the regular burns their skin (and I checked- it wasn’t the menthol- which WOULD hurt their sensitive skin). Also you can buy liquid water colors (from Discount School Supply- I think) and you don’t have to worry at all about staining your hands or clothes.
happyhooligans
Really good points, Chris. Thanks for mentioning them!
Carrie
Oh, how fun!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Jessica
We love shaving cream but have never tried adding food coloring. Looks amazing! Thanks for linking up to Magic Moments Monday! Hope to see you back next month!
Pennies of Time
This turned out to be an awesome activity for us! I seem to love every thing you do with children. Thanks for sharing at Magic Moments Monday! I hope you share there again.
happyhooligans
Well, thank you!
Amy
I used to use shaving cream on all my students desks as a fun way to get them playing creatively while cleaning their desks of germs and gunk. Shaving cream is fun in the tub too!
happyhooligans
Yes! We did it to clean our art table in the basement a couple of weeks ago, Amy! The kids love it, and the table came up so clean!
Krystale
For smaller children who put everythingin their mouths, can we use whipping cream or cool whip as an alternative to shaving cream?
happyhooligans
Sure, Krystale. I think that’s a great solution!
Laura Murphy
I love activities like this, but I take care of two year olds. When their eyes he itchy the rub it with shaving cream filled hands. Then guess what happens, shaving cream is now in their eye. What kind of activity will I do with them that will not get in eyes?
happyhooligans
Check out the water activities we’ve done here, Laura. You’ll find a bunch of them if you click the following link. They’ve all been so fun, and there’s no chance they can hurt their eyes with these. 🙂
BJacques
So you didn’t end up with tie died toddlers?
Tarnbop
I used this activity with my PMLD class- though we used whipped cream as I knew they would try and eat it (which was correct)! They absolutely loved the activity and we took it to the next level by making a print of the art that they produced with their foam! I am waiting for the weekend to be over to see if these dried nicely and if it smells due to the cream!!
Lindsey Carver
Did the food coloring stain the table? I have one of those plastic type tables you’d bring out for extra guests, but I’m concerned it’ll stain it?
Jackie Currie
Ours has a non-porous plastic veneer finish, so it doesn’t stain at all. I can’t say whether or not it might stain yours, unfortunately. You could test on the underside. Shaving cream is good at removing colouring stains from our hands, so it might prevent the colouring from staining your table. Again, I think the best way to know would be to test things on the underside.