Homemade Liquid Watercolors On A Tiny Budget
- missbradyart
- Aug 22, 2018
- 2 min read
What if I told you that you could make your own liquid watercolors and only spend $5?!
Liquid watercolors can be expensive and budgets don't always stretch far enough. Making your own watercolors is a great alternative that saves you money and allows you to reuse some items in your classroom that would otherwise be thrown away.
What you need:
Empty disinfectant wipe containers
FREE - ask teachers and parents to give you their empties
Dried up markers (the majority of mine are Crayola)
FREE - collect these in a box into your classroom. My box says "RIP Markers"
Water
most definitely, FREE
Clear condiment bottles with tops
buy these at the Dollar Tree for $1 for a pack of 2! I bought 5 because I was creating 9 colors.
I now interrupt this blog post for a brief ATPSA (art teacher public service announcement):If you are not buying from the Dollar Tree, you need to start. Now. Today. Immediately. Seriously.
Step 1:
Collect those yucky, dead markers. My students drop these into the "RIP Markers" box.
Separate them by color, take off the caps, and put them tip down into the empty disinfectant wipes containers. 5 or more of each color is ideal.
Bonus Tip - Save your caps to use for various other projects: stamping into clay, sculptures, etc.
I made the following colors: Pink, Magenta, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Turquoise, Blue, and Purple.
Bonus Tip #2 - Avoid using black markers. Black pigment is created by mixing other pigments together, and generally this liquid watercolor turns out to be a purple-blue-green yuck color that you probably don't want. ;)
Step 2:
Add water into each container.
The amount of water I added depended on how many markers were in each container. For around 10-15 markers, I filled the container about 1/3 full.
For richer color, add less water. For more of a wash, add more water.
Step 3:
Let markers sit in the water for at least 24 hours.
Pour your brand new, fabulous liquid watercolors into the condiment bottles you bought from the king of all dollar stores, the Dollar Tree.
Step 4:
After my first "batch," I added more water into each container to see if I can get any more pigment out. Whatever I have from this batch will be added to the condiment bottles, or I'll keep it there and continue to add markers to it.
It's a good idea to try this ^^ because you can make sure you got all that awesome color out of your markers!
Step 5:
Ship those officially dead markers off to Crayola! Thats right! Crayola has a Marker Recycling Initiative called ColorCycle.
Go to Crayola ColorCycle to print off a shipping label and send in your dead markers. (ANY BRAND, ANY KIND! Dry erase, off brand, highlighters, sharpies, etc.)
By making your own liquid watercolors, you are accomplishing SO much:
1. Saving money.
2. Creating your own art supplies.
3. Teaching your students the value of reusing and recycling.
Share your watercolor making experiences, questions, new findings, and projects with me by tagging me on Instagram @missbradyart
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