Tag: kid’s activities

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Art and Science Smash-Up: Milk Swirls Paintings

Milk Swirl Painting

milk and food coloring paintingI saw this idea on Photojojo a couple of days ago and immediately thought of doing this with Adia, who is very good at math and science. When I suggested this fun experiment for today, she was all over it! She remembered seeing the project on a website she called “Science Steve.”  Here is an excerpt from Steve’s post about this Color Changing Milk:

The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap’s polar, or hydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. This is when the fun begins.

The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops.

Milk Swirl Painting in ProgressSteve’s description of this experiment explains that it’s important not to stir the colors and the milk with the cotton swabs, but Adia couldn’t stop herself. She seemed much more interested in seeing what would happen when you stir all the colors together (you get a grayish tan color that looks totally unappetizing!)

I convinced Adia to let me to take photos along the way, before the colors were all mashed together. Aren’t these cool? The blue one looks a little like an angry face.

milk swirl painting in blue milk swirl paintings Green and Red Milk Swirl Painting Green and Red Milk Swirl Painting

What You Will Need

  • Whole or 2% milk (must have some fat for the science to work)
  • Dinner Plate
  • Food coloring (red, blue, green, yellow. We also used Neon colors)
  • Dish-washing soap (We used Ivory Liquid, but some sites say Dawn works best)
  • Q-tips (cotton swabs)

How to Make your Milk Swirl Paintings

Pouring milk for milk swirl painting
Pour a thin layer of milk onto a dinner plate that has a lip (we had to level our plate with a shim under one side

 

Beginning of Milk Swirl Painting
Put a few drops of food coloring into the milk
Green and Yellow Milk Swirl Painting
Touch the soapy swab to the colors in the milk and watch what happens.
Milk Swirl Painting
The color zooms away from the swab tip and makes beautiful, interesting shapes. You can keep dabbing the swab onto the colors, add more drops of color if you want.
Green and Yellow Milk Swirl Painting
You can also drag the swab lightly through the colors to make swirls and shapes.
Green and Yellow Milk Swirl Painting
Take photos! These make really cool abstract designs

Milk Swirl PaintingLINKS AND IDEAS:

Photojojo has a very clear, short video showing how to do this science/art project
Steve Spangler’s Science Experiment, Color Changing Milk. He even has a section on tips to turn this fun activity into a science fair experiment.
Here is a detailed description with great progress photos, of Steve’s color-changing-milk experiment.

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How to make Chalkboard Signs from Old Kitchen Bits

chalkboard sign

chalkboardOur local Habitat for Humanity has a depot for sourcing used building materials, called ReStore. I love to stop in regularly to see what they have that I might up-cycle into something useful, even though we are not  building or remodeling right now.

Last week I went to ReStore specifically to find something I could turn into small chalkboard signs with Ema and Adia and I scored! I found some old white frame and flat panel kitchen cupboard parts that already had that slight shabby-chic look that’s so popular now. I already had a can of chalkboard paint, though if I didn’t I would be writing now about making our own chalkboard paint.

A sign she can hang on her bedroom door, to change at her whim
A sign she can hang on her bedroom door, to change at her whim

The girls painted two drawer fronts to use as signs on their bedroom door. We also made one for my kitchen, and another for Jaime’s office.

chalkboard sign
A little something special for my friend’s office

Here is how we made our chalkboard signs:

Supplies Needed:

  • Something to use for the board. We used drawer-fronts and cupboard doors. You could also use an old mirror, or any flat piece of wood or substrate that will take the chalk paint. 
  • Chalkboard paint (You can  make your own if you want. I found directions here.)
  • Acrylic paint if you want to add decorative designs to the frames
  • Modge Podge (matte or gloss) to seal the decorative paint (don’t use Modge-Podge on the chalk paint, though!)
  • Sponge brushes or a good quality flat bristle brush for painting the chalk paint
  • Smaller brushes for the decorative design
  • Metal hanger or brads, for the back of the board
  • A ribbon, to hang between the brads if you choose

Instructions:

  1. Lightly sand the surface of whatever you are using for your chalkboard, so your paint will adhere
  2. Use acrylic paint to make decorative designs around the frame of the cupboard door or drawer front. Use brushes appropriate to acrylic paints and the size of your frame and strokes.
  3. Use a sponge brush or flat-bristle brush to apply the chalkboard paint — we didn’t worry about getting the edges perfectly even because we wanted a shabby-chic effect. Also, I like the way the brush strokes and imperfections show on the chalkboard part of our signs.
  4. Let dry. Seal with a layer of Modge Podge and again, let dry.
  5. Add brads, metal picture hangers, or good tacks on the back of the frame. Add picture wire, string or a lovely ribbon to hang your sign by.
  6. Enjoy changing the message on your sign whenever you feel like it!
chalkboard sign
A removable red painted hanger gives Jaime something to hang notes on.

Additions we made to Jaime’s sign:  we added a red painted wire clothes hanger and some clips so Jaime can hang notes, photos, whatever. Like it?

Links and Other Chalkboard Ideas:

  • Comparison of homemade chalkboard paints — author also has some good ideas on using chalk paint on salvaged furniture
  • Fun diy magnetic chalkboard idea. Making this next!
  • Paint chalkboard risers on steps and write poetry
  • Pinterest board with tons of chalkboard ideas (just a side note: I really appreciate it when people include the ORIGINAL source with their pins on Pinterest. On the other hand, it irks me greatly when people steal others’ photos by downloading, then pinning to their own Pinterest boards without giving credit where credit is due. Just sayin’)