Bubble Prints

As a follow up to our dry ice experiments post, I wanted to show you how to do bubble prints without the need for dry ice. I like the way the dry ice bubbles are so big and plentiful, but you can certainly make some awesome bubble prints without dry ice. Just grab a bowl full of water and some dish soap and you are good to go!

To do this art project well you want lots of bubbles. We turned this into an experiment to see which soap works the best. We used dish soap, hand soap, and bubble bath. Spoiler Alert: The dish soap works the best, at least it did for us. It created more bubbles that seemed to last longer than the other varieties of soap did.

All you need to do is mix some soap and water together in a bowl so that you get some good suds going. We found it worked best to pour the soap and water into the bowl together.

Once you have a good bubble dome going, grab some food coloring (NOT the gel kind) and put a few drops of your favorite colors on top of the bubbles. Then grab a piece of paper and lightly dab it onto the colored bubbles. It may take some practice to get this just right. If you press too hard you just get a smear of color without imprinting the bubbly texture. If you don't do it hard enough you don't get any color transferred to your paper. Experiment with different bowls of varying shape and size. See if you get better bubbles if you use hot water versus cold. Don't worry if you get some bubbles on your paper or if your paper gets wet. It will dry and contribute to the fun tie-dye pattern!

If your bubbles start to pop, simply pour out your water and start again with new water and soap. Repeat as much as you desire!

The food coloring on top of the bubbles is reminiscent of snow cone deliciousness from summertime.

Another fun part of this activity to watch is when the drop of food coloring drops from the bubbles into the water. As the drop falls it leaves a trail of color behind it that will slowly mix into the entire bowl of water, even if you don't stir it. Molecules are always in motion, something you can see as the color disperses itself through the water without any extra agitation. (See also Color Bombs.) Here at The Science Kiddo we can find the science in everything!

So what do you do with the bubble prints once they are dry? Well, your imagination is the limit! We made some Halloween decorations to hang in the windows. We made a little Halloween card. I found that a lot of our prints this time were very ghost-like, so we went with that and made a little Halloween picture with some ghostly visitors.

I know my readers are way more artistic and imaginative than I am. I would love, love, LOVE to hear and see what creations you dream up with your bubble prints. Tag me in a post to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest with the hashtag #bubbleprints and I will repost and highlight your artwork!