Elmer’s Glue Gel Batik: Fun & Easy Kids’ Craft Project

[tweetherder]This Elmers Glue Gel Batik is a great art project for kids of all ages[/tweetherder]. There are so many possibilities and ways to personalize these creations.

As long as your child is old enough to use paint they’ll be able to get fantastic results with this Glue Gel Batik.

While this project is easy, there are multiple steps and several drying times. Just keep in mind that this isn’t a one day process.

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Materials

• Fabric ~ white works best, anything that can be painted and machine washed, cloth napkins, aprons, canvas totes, t-shirts, etc.
• Elmer’s Glue Gel ~ this was a bit difficult to find in our area, we bought ours at Hobby Lobby (also available online), it might be easier to find during the back-to-school season…so if you find it, stock up 🙂 Elmer’s Glue Gel is available through Amazon. A sales associate at our local Ace Hardware also said they could order it and have it shipped to their store (this could possibly save you the shipping fees).
• Acrylic Craft Paint
• Paint Brushes ~ foam brushes work well for younger children
• Wax Paper

Instructions

Cover your work surface with wax paper. Use the blue Elmer’s Glue Gel to “draw” a design on your fabric.

Wherever you put glue will remain white. We chose to get an early start on Christmas presents by decorating some cloth napkins. I simply purchased white napkins at Walmart. They come in 2-packs for $1.97.

For this project, I chose to draw the glue designs, but older children can easily draw their own. The glue bottles were a little difficult for our kiddos to manage. Let the glue dry completely, this will take at least several hours.

Then, paint your fabric with acrylic paint. Make sure your work surface is covered. You can water the paint down a little to make it easier to work with and help it stretch further. Keep in mind that the colors will fade a little throughout the process.

We didn’t water down the paint for these first napkins, but we ended up with some thickly painted spots that took forever to dry and the finished napkins were a little stiff. For our next round, we’ll water the paint down a little to make it easier for the kids to spread around without it clumping.

(Check back next week for project #2 and the results of watered down paint and Dollar Tree spray bottles.)

Remember, the glue lines will be white, so you’ll want to cover the rest of the fabric with paint so your glue design will show up.

   

Allow the paint to dry completely before continuing. This could take a day or two. Everything has to be completely dry before you wash the glue away or some of the color will wash away as well!

Fill your sink or a large bin with very warm water and let your painted fabric soak for 20 minutes. The glue will begin to dissolve to reveal your design. You can help the glue dissolve faster by rubbing the fabric together or scraping at the glue with your fingernail. On cotton or canvas fabric you can also use an old toothbrush or nail brush to scrub the glue off.

Here you can see where the glue has peeled off to show the white fabric underneath.

Once all of the glue is off, allow your projects to dry. Then heat set the paint by placing the fabric in the dryer (on the highest heat recommended for your fabric) for about 10 minutes. Wash and dry painted fabric separately the first few times.

Here are our finished napkins.

We have a couple more Elmer’s Glue Gel Batik projects in the works, so be sure to check back next week for even more batik fun! (Next week’s batik methods are even easier…perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and big kids, too.)

Have you ever tried glue batiks? What art project have your kids enjoyed recently?