Marshmallow Printing

Tom and I are always on the look out for new ideas. Tom uses marshmallows a lot for messy play, we like to melt them and play with them on his feet. We decided to use them for something a little different, painting.

For Tom holding a paintbrush or a stamp is very tricky, we manage it when I am holding onto the brush as well but I find that this takes away Tom's independence as he is totally reliant on me holding the brush for him and I feel like I can intrude on his creative inspiration, I much prefer Tom to be able to have free control over his own work.

When I was deciding what to do with Tom I saw the giant marshmallows and thought they might be fun to do printing with, like you do with apples. I got Tom set up for a messy activity and then we started to print using the marshmallows.

The paint we were using was scented paint from Hobbycraft. You can get many different scents and they come in lots of different colours. Check out the link at the bottom of the page to find them. Tom and I like using this paint as it adds an extra sensory element to the activity.

As you can see in the picture Tom loved this activity! The marshmallows worked so much better than I thought the would. Not only did they make lovely prints but they also allowed Tom to roll them about and squeeze them as they did not require too much pressure. The giant marshmallows were really light so Tom could move them about the page on his own and created a painting that was mainly his own work with very little adult intervention.

The marshmallows also helped promote and develop Tom's fine and gross motor skills as he had to use his fingers to apply pressure but also to move the paint across the page he had to use his whole arm and swipe the marshmallows away. Tom worked very hard during this activity!

We both had a lot of fun and again we both got very messy. Be sure to give this a go if yo have little ones.

Scented paint: https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/bubblegum-scented-red-ready-mixed-paint-150ml/635753-1003