Balloon Painting for Kids: An Easy and Crazy Way to Paint with Balloons

In this post you will learn different ways of balloon painting and whether it is the right activity for you.

What is Balloon Painting for Kids

There are multiple ways to paint with balloons. You can fill them with paint and throw darts at them, fill the balloon with paint and squeeze the paint out, paint the balloon itself, use the balloon to make certain shapes, or use the balloon as a paint brush and just go at it. This is what we did.

I thought the dart idea was pretty cool, but I didn’t have time to set it all up, or the supplies on hand. I wanted to do a craft with the kids that was easy, simple, and fun. I had some balloons, and I had some paint on hand.

I thought it would be fun to make a cool design and mimic all the balloon paintings I’ve seen on Pinterest. It did not turn out AT ALL like I had thought, but isn’t that always parenting. Time for a tangent…

There are so many times that I have an activity planned and I think it is going to be SO AWESOME, and then the kids just whine and complain through the whole thing and it ends up being more work for me than it is fun for them! **SIGH** I’m learning to lower my expectations (not in a bad way), be okay if my expectations aren’t met, and then realize that we can still have fun even if it doesn’t live up to what’s in my head. Anybody else struggle with this? You are my people!

(A lot of time my expectations are what create my anxiety! #workinprogress)

Anyway…This was one of those times where I thought it was a huge fail, but I think the kids had fun. (I kinda enjoyed it myself.) If you compare my Pinterest pins to other balloon painting pins, however, it would appear as a fail. Haha. (but who does that?)

Like I said, we decided to do the balloon painting where the balloon is the paintbrush and you just go to town! Here’s how we did it!

Balloon Painting for Kids

Supplies:

Balloons (any balloons will work, we got ours from the dollar store)

Paint (I love acrylic paints)

Paper (Computer paper would work just fine, but I bet if you bought, or have, a big craft paper roll, it would be sturdier and bigger, so just overall better. I might be investing in one of these soon. It just comes in handy for almost any craft project!)

Instructions:

Prepare by blowing up your balloons to different sizes. Small balloons are easier to handle, and fit on the paper better, but I’m sure your kids will be asking for big ones. We did an array of sizes. (TIP: the easier it is for them to handle, the more you’ll have a “handle” on the mess.)

Pour out some paint onto a plate or painting tray. It would be nice If the paint were on an almost flat surface so it’s easier to get paint on the balloon.

Dip your balloon into the paint and stamp it on your paper. Go to town!

If you mix the paints real nice, you could probably make a cool design, but if your kids are anything like mine, they just mix all the paints in no coordinated design and then splat it on the paper in, again, an uncoordinated way.

TIP: This craft is messier than usually painting because the balloons are harder than a paint brush to handle, and they can EASILY slip out of your hand. So, be aware, you might have some flying balloons, with paint. I would recommend throwing down a sheet all around and doing it in an area that cleans up easily.

We came up with some amazing abstract works of art! Let me tell ya!

This activity is fun because it’s different. My kids were excited at the prospect of painting with a balloon. Then when we were done they just wanted a balloon. I think in the summer we might try to do the balloon dart painting.

I would count it as a win because it was simple, easy, fun, and cheap!

There you have it, balloon painting, the ugly way! 🙂

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