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If the thought of doing art with your kids makes you cringe (maybe because there’s still glitter embedded in the carpet from your last attempt), I get it. Kids are messy enough already — handing them cups of water and rainbow paint primed for splattering, spilling and staining everything within a 5-foot radius seems like a recipe for disaster.
The good news is that summer is here — which means my kids and I can take our art outside, where cleanup is as simple as turning on my garden hose (or waiting for the next summer rainstorm to blow through). So pack up your paint and head outside, because here are thirteen of the messiest art projects I love, perfect for the long, hot days ahead.
Bike spin art
Everyone knows a salad spinner can work for spin art. But did you know a bike tire can too? Cover your bike tire with paper, gather up some washable paint and start making some awesome art. You’ll need a big space for this one, and lots of paper to collect the drips and flung-off paint. But it’s totally worth it for the cool art and smiling faces. Babble Dabble Do has great instructions and a cute video that will inspire you to try this cool project.
Flower pounding
This fun project will have them sweating and results in a beautiful decoration. Start by collecting flowers outside in a variety of colors and shapes. Next, place the flowers on a clean piece of fabric, cover with cardboard and start swinging that hammer. The pounding will transfer the image of the flower onto the fabric, so cool! Head to Artful Parent for all the details.
Colorful squirt gun painting
Round up the squirt guns littering your yard for this fun messy art project. Fill the squirt guns with liquid watercolors and blast away at a paper. Attach the paper to an outdoor easel, or even a tree! Tip: If squirt guns aren’t your thing, spray bottles will work just as well. Fireflies and Mudpies has the details.
Watermelon slime
No food says “summer” quite as much as watermelon. With just a few ingredients, your kids can whip up a batch of slime unlike any other. The watermelon Jell-o gives the slime a lovely scent, and they’ll love mixing in the “seeds.” Just be ready to hose them down, this project is sticky! Head to Giggles Galore for the details.
Paint-filled eggs on canvas
I’ve seen a lot of messy painting ideas with kids, but nothing quite like this. Start by making a small hole in the bottom of an egg and empty out the shell (pre-project omelet anyone?). When the shells are clean, fill each one with a different color of paint. Set up some paper outside, hand over the paint-filled shells and let the kids go wild throwing them to create a truly unique (and super fun) work of art. Head to Andrea’s Notebook for all the details.
Bubble painting
Kids love this simple activity from Early Learning Ideas because it focuses a lot on the process: The primary effort is in mixing the paint colors, water and dish soap together, then blowing bubbles in the solution with straws. Once you have nice, big bubbles, you can then gently press pieces of paper down to make a colored impression — but the fun really lies in all that messy bubble-blowing.
Pendulum painting
If you’ve got a large patch of bare driveway, this is the perfect project. With a basic setup that even the most clueless parent can copy, your kids will create mesmerizing swirls, loops and splatters of color while exploring the physics of pendulums. You can find out how to do it and the recipe for washable sidewalk paint at Innovation Kids Lab — make sure you test its washability on your driveway before you get started.
Salt art
Talk about a low-prep project — this idea from Buggy and Buddy requires only salt and squeeze bottles to keep your kids busy drawing patterns, shapes, letters and more. To up the fun factor, you can add food dye to your salt the night before so your kids have different colors to design with (it needs time to dry, so plan ahead).
Gravity art
Kids love learning about that mysterious thing called gravity, and what better way to teach them than by letting them see it in action? Take this idea from Fun-A-Day, and have your kid stand on a small step ladder or stool for splat art, dropping paint-soaked pompoms down onto a roll of butcher paper, or deposit paint at the top of a mounted canvas with pipettes or spoons and watch it drip down. Bonus points if they can turn their dry drips into a creative art prompt, like a rain cloud or spring garden.
Mud painting
Perfect for the first sunny day after a bunch of rainy ones, this activity is a great way to take advantage of all that mud just sitting around in your backyard. Kids can use brushes or just their fingers to paint. Fitness by the Sea offers tons of information and fun ideas for making different shades of colored mud. Use heavier paper, such as card stock, that can hold up to the thicker texture of this paint.
Bubble wrap stomping
If you’ve got kids who can’t stop bouncing, dancing and stomping around the house, take them outside to create something cool with all that movin’ and shakin’. This cool idea from The Soccer Mom Blog uses just three supplies you probably already have on hand (washable paint, poster board and bubble wrap). So, let your kids get their wiggles out and design some pretty unique artwork at the same time.
Erupting art
Baking soda and vineger is a tried and true combo kids can’t resist. The Pinterested Parent shows you how to mix these basic ingredients together to create an eruption of color on canvas. Part of what’s cool about this activity is its unpredictability — you don’t know how your eruptions are going to spread out, and the possibilities of what you could do with your abstract shapes and designs after they dry are endless (monster faces, giant flowers, alien spaceships!).
Nature tie-dye shirts
Forget about the boring tie-dye T-shirts you made in middle school — take advantage of your natural surroundings to make resist-style tie-dye creations with your kids instead. This project from The Pinterested Parent is made super simple with a tie-dye spray kit like this one. After a few rounds of washing and drying, your child will be able to show off her artwork anytime she leaves the house!
Editor’s note: This article was originally published several years ago and updated most recently on June 11, 2026, by ParentMap’s editorial team. Kari Hanson previously contributed to this article.
