A Beautiful Book (Series) & Tie Dye Paper Towel Roses!
After reading Susan Verde’s “I Am Love: A Book of Compassion” we decided to use the tie dye paper towel technique we learned from @mothercould and the paper towel roses we were inspired by @rachelmoffatt13 on Instagram, to make these wonderful Tie Dye Paper Towel Roses. They were very simple and fun to make and I can’t wait to walk you through it, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “I Am Love: A Book of Compassion”
“I Am Love: A Book of Compassion” by Susan Verde & Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds is another beautiful book from this amazing team! It is a heartwarming book about all that love encompasses. It talks about being compassionate, empathetic, creative, a good listener and how important self-love is. Simple & poignant illustrations paired with the wonderful way Verde writes this book is just exquisite.
How We Made Tie Dye Paper Towel Roses…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity we followed @mothercould’s super simple video tutorial on Instagram found here.
My daughter had a blast making all different color combinations drawing with the washable markers on paper towels. The best part was how quickly you could take the rubber band off and reveal the design. You don’t have to wait until it dries, in fact its best to open it up while wet so it will dry faster. You can also experiment with folding it various ways or using more rubber bands, etc…
Turning Tie Dye Paper Towels into Flowers…
We had seen these incredible paper towel flowers from @rachelmoffatt13 a while back and just knew we had to try making them. We didn’t have any pipe cleaners on hand which is what we always used in the classroom when making homemade flowers. So we decided to try out popsicle sticks, but we only had jumbo ones and after several attempts realized it was just not gonna work. Then we tried a straw and bam! We had a winner! 🙂
It took a bit of practice folding the paper towel and rolling it tight enough to stay on the straw but not so tight that it no longer resembled a rose lol. We persisted and I’m not gonna lie they are by no means perfect, but then again that’s why we’re called “Parenting NOT Perfection” to remind ourselves that its okay if things aren’t perfect. We added some scotch tape to keep them from unraveling and attached to the straw. I’m sure you could use glue but the tape has held up and its a much easier route to go if you have little ones that wanna be the ones to make their own flower, which of course I recommend. 😉
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each art has its own identity. I would suggest making Tie Dye Paper Towel Roses if you’re looking for a sweet and inviting art activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “I Am Love: A Book of Compassion” book (from the library or buy it here)
- Select a size paper towels
- Washable markers
- Spray bottle
- Water
- Tray
- Rubberbands
- Straws
- Scissors
- Tape
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Tie Dye Paper Towel Roses?
- Fold the paper towel short or long way in a rolling fashion until there’s no more to fold.
- Fold it in half and add two rubber bands (or more).
- Color the entire paper towel with washable markers.
- Spray the entire paper towel with water so that its damp & the colors bleed.
- Continue making one paper towel for each rose you want to make.
- Unwrap the paper towels, and lay out to dry.
- Once dry, fold the tie dyed paper towel in half so you have one long piece.
- Cut the bendy part of the straw off.
- Place the straw at one end of the paper towel and begin rolling it up. The trick is to roll it tight at first then looser as you go along so that it looks like a rose. Another tip is try not to roll it too perfectly.
- Once its all rolled up use a piece of tape to keep it closed and keep it attached to the straw.
- Place the roses in a jar with decorative filler.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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