Maker Monday: a fireworks art project kids will love

Kids love watching the night sky light up with crackling fireworks — and the summer fireworks season is almost here. This week’s Maker Monday offers a fun way to paint a summer fireworks landscape using an unusual, homemade paintbrush.

You can do this project with items you may have around the house or can get at a dollar store. And kids can make several versions, learning how artists make early drafts of a painting to experiment with creating the image they have in their mind. (A note to kid makers: Please work with a parent or caregiver on this project and always be very careful when using tools of any kind, like scissors.) 

Here’s how to do it:

Materials you’ll need:

• construction paper (dark blue or black is great as a night sky, but you can use any color)
• poster paints (for your fireworks)
• cardboard tubes (from a paper towel or toilet paper roll)
• scissors
• optional: markers or crayons to draw your landscape picture
• optional: a paintbrush to paint your landscape picture with the poster paints

STEP ONE: At one end of a cardboard tube, cut a row of lines about 2 inches deep, keeping each cut close together. Once you’ve finished cutting all the way around, bend the cut pieces back all the way around to form the “bristles” for your brush.

STEP TWO: On the lower half of a piece of construction paper, paint a scene showing a place that will have fireworks in the sky. It could be anything you dream up — a city skyline or an open field, or a picture of your neighborhood or your house. Just be sure to allow enough room across the top for an open sky, which you will fill with fireworks.

STEP THREE: Now it’s time to add your fireworks! Put some poster paint on a flat surface like a paper plate and press down into the paint with your homemade cardboard tube brush. Once you have paint on the end of the brush, press it onto the paper to create the firework blooms. (You can practice this on a plain piece of paper first, to figure out how much paint you need on the end of your cardboard “brush.”)

Creative idea: Try layering multiple colors for a beautiful, dramatic result: Begin with darker shades and then add layers of lighter colors.

Now your masterpiece is ready for framing — or at least hanging on the refrigerator!