Shaving Cream Art Activities
Published in
3 min readJun 10, 2020
Puffy Ice Cream Cones
Sensory play is a great way for kids to find a bit of calm when feeling a bit antsy. Sensory play also supports language and cognitive development, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills and social interaction — not to mention, it’s super fun!
Try this fluffy art activity — your child will love the soft ice cream-like texture. Remember this ice cream is just for your hands, not your mouth!
Supplies:
- White paper
- Mixing dishes or containers for paint. You’ll need separate ones for each colour.
- Shaving cream — for sensitive noses, you’ll want to try and find one that doesn’t have a strong perfume scent. It needs to be the kind that foams — gel won’t work.
- White glue
- Paint or food colouring
- Brown paper or cardboard
- Scissors
- Black or brown marker
- Glitter, confetti, pom poms or other small things to create “sprinkles” or “chocolate chips”
- Brushes
Instructions:
- Pre-mix equal parts of shaving cream and glue. Start with the shaving cream and stir in the glue until you get a puffy consistency. The less glue, the more puffy it will be.
- Cut the cardboard or brown paper into triangles to make the ice cream cones. You can draw diagonal lines on them to make them “waffle” cones.
- You and your child can decide where on the paper to glue the cones. Keep them lower on the paper to make room for your ice cream.
- You can both decide what “flavours” to make the ice cream. For example: green for mint, pink/red for strawberry, brown for chocolate etc. Remind your child that this is just pretend and this paint is definitely not for eating! If you want multiple flavours, divide the puffy paint into separate containers and add a little bit of the paint or food colouring of your choice into each. Start with a small amount of paint, too much will make it runny and it will lose its “puff”.
- Go for it! They can use their fingers or a brush to make the scoops of ice cream. You can have a conversation about how many “scoops” to put on top of their cone.
- While the paint is still wet, add the extras — confetti or glitter for sprinkles, little brown bits of paper for chocolate chips. Add a cherry on top with red paint or with a pom pom.
- This is a fun piece to explore once it’s dry because the paint will stay puffy.
Check out this example from craftymorning.com for a minty version!
Shaving Cream Snowman/Snow-woman
It’s almost summer, but who says you can’t make a snowman/snow-woman all year round!
Supplies:
- Shaving cream — for sensitive noses, you’ll want to try and find one that doesn’t have a strong perfume scent. It needs to be the kind that foams — gel won’t work.
- White glue
- Container to mix glue and shaving cream
- Brushes
- Coloured paper — blue or black, (white or light coloured paper won’t have the same effect)
- Pencil/marker/crayon
- Things to decorate snowman with: black circles for eyes and mouth, orange paper or pipe cleaner for nose, black paper for hat, ribbon bits for scarf, pipe cleaners for hands, or whatever you want!
Instructions:
- Pre-mix equal parts of shaving cream and glue. Start with the shaving cream and stir in the glue until you get a puffy consistency. The less glue, the more puffy it will be.
- Optional: You can draw circles for the snowman — work with your child to decide how large a snowman to make. You can talk it through — “What parts make up a snowman?” “Should we start with the head? What shape should it be?”
- Your child can use their fingers or a brush to put the shaving cream “snow” on the paper.
- Add a snowy background. Show your child how to dip just the tip of a finger into the “snow” and dot it onto the paper to make snow flakes.
- Before it dries, accessorize! Add the face, scarf, hat, and whatever else your snow-person needs. If it’s not sticking enough, a dab of white glue should do the trick.
- Once the artwork is dry, the “snow” should remain puffy.
Have a look at these sites for awesome finished examples; tipsfromatypicalmomblog.com and encouragingmomsathome.com
