Ikea Kid’s Squeeze Paint Ideas
Check out our favorite Ikea Kid’s squeeze paint ideas. With vivid colors and squeezable bottles, Ikea’s Mala squeeze paint is a fun and unique medium for kids.
The Ikea Mala squeeze paint set comes with 7 bright, fluorescent colors and 2 glitter tones – silver and gold. My kids love squeezing the bottles and watching the paint drip, or stream, onto the paper. We’ve tested other squeezable paint bottles and the kids struggled squeezing hard enough to get the paint out. Ikea Mala squeeze paint bottles are easy to squeeze and control the amount of paint released.
Ikea recommends the paint for 5 and older and states it is not for children under 3 because of the choking hazard from the lid. Use your judgment and discretion as to when and how to introduce these paints to your kids. When my kids were younger, I removed the lids and stored them out of their reach. Now, my 4- and 5-year olds have strong enough hands to unscrew and replace the lids by themselves.
The only slight downside to working with Mala squeeze paint is that it isn’t washable and can stain. Whenever painting with Mala squeeze paint, we set up our workspace with our essentials for minimizing art mess. The kids wear smocks and paint on oilcloth mats with wet and dry rags at the ready. The paint wipes easily off our oilcloth mats and doesn’t stain if quickly removed. Every once in a while, the paint may lightly stain the kids’ hands. But, the color fades after a couple of soapy washes. These works of art are great to display, or send out as DIY Kid Thank You Cards.
Use Repurposed Materials With Ikea Kid’s Squeeze Paint
Working with Ikea Mala squeeze paint is a great opportunity to use repurposed materials. We often use cut-up cardboard boxes for canvas with Mala squeeze paints. The colors retain their brilliance even against brown cardboard.
My son loved decorating a cardboard paper towel tube with Mala squeeze paint and turning it into a fancy lightsaber. This project requires a little patience, as each side should dry before rotating and painting around the tube.
Both kids loved creating “stamps” from second use aluminum foil and air pillow packing material. Even though this is a simple project, see below for steps.
After experimenting with these Ikea kid’s squeeze paint ideas, check out these other kid art projects:
- Create Outdoors: Ideas for Kid Art on a Hike
- Elevate Kid’s Painting With a Bold Outline
- DIY Paint-By-Color
- Our Favorite Kid Craft Kits for Ages 5-7
- Basic Needlepoint for Kids
Try These Ikea Kid’s Squeeze Paint Ideas
Squeeze and Paint
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper or canvas
- paint brush
Starting either a pencil outline or blank paper, squeeze Mala paint in various colors around the paper. Paint comes out of the bottle in a thin line or blobs. Use a paint brush to spread the color.
For some pizazz at the end, squeeze Mala paint over a finished painting to add spots, lines, and squiggles.
Craft Stick Smear
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper or canvas
- wood craft stick
Squeeze paint around paper. Drag a wood craft stick through paint to smear and combine colors.
Paint with Cars
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper or canvas
- washable toy cars
Mala paint can stain, so don’t use favorite cars for this art project. We use die cast or foam cars, avoiding any cars with stickers that could come off when wet.
Squeeze paint to create thick blobs of color around the paper. Drive cars through paint. Replenish blobs when needed.
Wash the cars before paint dries on for easier removal. Cleaning the cars is almost as fun as using the cars for art. Place two bins of water (one soapy and one clean) on top of a towel or two. Give kiddos old toothbrushes and washcloths for a car wash. Towel dry cars, then set out to fully dry. Car and animal washes are one of our favorite activity, coupled with art or on its own. This can get messy, so be prepared for some splashes and wet kiddos.
Squeeze Paint and Fold
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper
Fold blank paper in half and unfold. Squeeze several colors on one side of the fold line. Re-fold, pressing sides together. Open and enjoy the mirror-image design.
Marbled Paper Using Ikea Squeeze Paint
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper
- large wood craft stick
- rag
Mala paint “stains” paper upon contact, leaving light color even if paint is wiped off. Use this staining feature to create marbled paper.
Squeeze paint in various colors toward one side of the paper. Place the edge of a large wood craft stick against the paper and pull across. Wipe excess off craft stick and repeat, pulling paint in various directions. When paper completely covered, wipe paper with rag and remove excess paint.
Packing Air Pillow and Aluminum Foil “Stamps”
Materials:
- Mala squeeze paint
- paper
- packing air pillow
- aluminum foil
Save plastic air pillows used for shipping boxes. Also, next time there’s a used, but clean, piece of aluminum foil, save it for an art adventure.
Squeeze paint in small area. Press air pillow or scrunched aluminum foil into wet paint, then stamp onto clean piece of paper. Repeat and replenish paint if necessary.
Share your favorite Ikea kid’s squeeze paint ideas!
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Love to see those little hands! Wonderful
project for little ones. 💕😍
The painting from tubes is an excellent concept. It teaches appreciation for abstract painting, which I lack. I loved the mirror image concept achieved from folding. Everything is so clever and instructive. This article is chock full of creative ideas that stimulates inventiveness in the Kiddos.