Experimenting With Texture: Homemade Paint Brushes and Texture Tools!

I've noticed sets of nifty textured paint brushes at the craft store. 

I've never bought a set because I'm too cheap

and I was worried their novelty would be over as soon

as we used them one time. 

So, we did what any crafty and frugal family would do....

we made our own!

We made a homemade set of "texture" paint brushes

(and scrapers)

out of re-cycled/re-purposed materials. 

Here are some photos of ours to get your creative brain juices flowing!

We gathered our materials:

Pipe Cleaners 

(chenille stems, as Martha would say)

Rubber Bands

Yarn

Craft Foam

Sponges

Wooden Clothespins

Old Toothbrushes

Wooden Handles 

(I saved from those little disposable foam craft brushes!) 

Cardboard Scraps

Then, we got to work cutting-up and rubber-banding different 

various materials to the wooden handles to make "brushes".

By cutting different designs in pieces cardboard

we could make different designs

when we scraped and dragged it through our paint. 

When they get soggy and floppy, just toss them in the recycling!

(Psst.... Plastic hair combs are fun to do this with too!)

I set out blank sheets of office copy paper

and some bowls of washable craft paint

and asked "C" to show me how we should use these new tools.

Here's "C" making textures on her paper.

We used Clothespins for a few handles too!

It was fun to cut loose for an hour yesterday 

and experiment with the different tools. 

Think we might just do it again this afternoon!

We ended up with all kinds of pretty and funky papers.

(I see Eric Carle-inspired collage-making in our future!) 

Wine corks make good circle stamps 

(think: homemade dot-a-dot markers!)

Fingers make pretty neat "texture tools" too! 

Happy Texture Making!

Fondly,

pink and green mama,