Hi, I’m Alyssa and I have a canvas addiction. Our latest project? This Rainbow Button Canvas Art!
The number of canvas pieces I have in my house…probably a bit much, but they look so amazing!
Check out my other canvas tutorials here
I love hanging up artwork that is hand-crafted by family. Creating the artwork is a great opportunity to explore creativity and even work together as a family.
My latest canvas art piece has a beautiful rainbow!
It’s a multi-media piece with paint, glue, buttons, and cotton balls!
This canvas piece can actually be educational for your children!
Use this piece to:
- Teach the science of rainbows
- Teach the God-given promise of rainbows
- Teach colors
- Match shapes, sizes, and colors
- Work on motor skills
- Decorate for St. Patrick’s Day
This would be an adorable addition to a nursery! It can also be displayed around the house as a seasonal decoration.
What You Need
- Wrapped canvas
- Paint brushes (I use a wide for the bottom layer and thin rounded for the thinner lines)
- Acrylic paints
- Buttons (I got this set)
- Glue (hot glue or school glue work great–I used school glue since the kids were helping, so they didn’t get burnt)
- Cotton balls
- Paint pens
- Cup of water (for rinsing brushes)
- Paper towel (for patting brushes dry and wiping up messes)
- Paper plate or plastic lid or something to put the paint on
Directions
1. You will want to start by painting a layer of light blue on the background. I did a different light blue than the one I used in my pastel color scheme for the buttons. I did this as a wash–basically I used the paint color I’d made and kept the brush extra wet so the paint was more translucent on the canvas. I also kept some white space around the edges to the typical “watercolor look.”
2. Once the base layer is dried, plan out your rainbow. I set up the buttons I wanted to make sure I had enough of each and see what size I wanted. You can also mark where you will need to paint each line.
3. Paint on your rainbow lines with the thinner brush. You can skip this if you’d like, but it definitely makes the piece look more pulled-together and helps guide where to glue the buttons. I made colors to match the buttons I chose. Usually I go with bright colors, but I went with a simple pastel color scheme and didn’t do the full ROYGBIV rainbow. I also painted some white at each end for the clouds.
4. Once the paint from the rainbow is dried, you can start adding the buttons. I had my boys add the buttons and started with the innermost layer. I’d add a little dot of glue and my oldest would find the matching color, style, and size from the button pile and add it on. If you are worried about getting them all in the right places, set them on the painted lines first to see how many you will need to use. We just winged it.
5. Keep going with the buttons until you reach the outermost layer. Talk to your child about colors, matching, size differences, etc.. Read also: A Rainbow of Ways to Learn Colors | 7 Learning Activities
6. Glue cotton balls onto the white painted area. I covered the entire white space with glue and let S, my youngest, add these on.
7. Wait for all the glue to dry, then you can add words on. I used a gold and a white paint marker to add the words “Remember God’s Promises.” You can pencil this on first if you wish and use any color you want.
9. Once everything is dry, hang your art piece! You can try to hang it as it is or you can add sawtooth picture hangers or a wire picture hanger kit onto the back.
Read also: Rainbow Sentence Building Activity and Handprint Flowers Canvas Art
I would love to hear from you in the comments below–What’s your favorite color of the rainbow?
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The grandkids love doing crafts. This is super cute, I am going to have to make these with them.
Great! Feel free to share on my Facebook page when it’s complete! My kids had so much fun with it!
This is such a cute idea! Will have to do this with my daughter as she is way into rainbows right now!
This craft project is so pretty and fun to make with my daughter. I love the colors and message. It looks easy enough for us to do. Thanks for sharing.
I love how your Rainbow print turned out! I’m going to make one for my grand daughter’s room,with her name on it!! So cute!!