Easy Watercolor Art Project kids will LOVE: Heart Art

Easy and fun watercolor painting idea for preschoolers and children

Kids will absolutely love this easy heart art watercolor art project!!!!! This project would be a great and easy watercolor project to complete for Valentine’s Day because it is suitable for kids of all ages. However, it doesn’t just have to be Heart Art. Anyone could make this easy watercolor art project that kids will love for any occasion.

For instance, my 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son created the beautiful heart art examples in this post. We plan on giving these to our Grammy on her birthday. We love her so much and are so happy to be able to share our love through our art!

After we were done, my son said, “This was awesome”. I hope you enjoy creating your own easy watercolor art project.

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. *

Tips for using watercolor paint with preschoolers & toddlers

For watercolor paints, my toddlers and I used washable paint that I have linked above. However, for older kids, I love using this Prang Watercolor set. This set is a little more pricey, but I have seen 500 kids use them all year and still work well.

If you really want some different and vibrant colors in your projects, you should check out ordering a set of liquid watercolor paints like these from Sax. You can dilute and mix these to achieve a variety of colors. This set of 8 is also great because it will last a very long time for all your projects.

In addition, I normally recommend a different brand of painter’s tape for wall or furniture projects, like in my post about creating a DIY Herringbone Accent Wall. However, I have found that for paper projects, the tape I have linked above and here is best because it may come off the paper a little easier.

Can you tell, I have tons of opinions on art supplies, especially when it comes to art supplies for kids. Trying to find supplies that will last and are worth the money is a challenge.

Easy Watercolor Painting Steps to create your own Heart Art

1. Decide what image you want to create. For instance, I am going to show you how you can create a beautiful heart artwork pretty easily using painter’s tape.

In addition, the taping and cutting should be done by an adult or an older child. Obviously, I did not have my young children using an Exacto knife. More power to you if let them! However, any aged kid can cut things out of the painter’s tape and create their own images.

2. Gather supplies. On thicker paper or watercolor paper tape a larger area then you will need. For a heart artwork, I taped a large upside down triangle to begin with.

3. Draw image you will want to cut out on painter’s tape and cut out using an Exacto knife. Be careful not to press too hard.

4. Now we are ready to start painting our heart art! My young children could not wait to start using watercolor paint.

Colors that are next to each other in the color wheel will mix better than if kids just mix all the colors. But hey, they are kids so let them experiment, too! You can always make more of these heart art projects because they are an easy watercolor art project that kids will love.

5. Before the kids start painting, have them paint some water on the paper. This will easily help the colors blend when they start making their watercolor art project.

Step 6:

Let the kids or toddlers start to paint and have some fun! I had to encourage my daughter to paint in the white space around the heart and not on the heart! She still painted on the heart anyway! If you separate the colors into warm and cool, they will end up with interesting color mixtures.

7. Finish covering the white space around the tape area. I like if they leave some space white, but make sure near the tape is painted.

8. Optional step: If you want to get a cool effect, sprinkle regular table salt on to the wet watercolor paint. Let the kids see what magic will be created on their own heart art watercolor art project!

9. Let projects dry! You must be patient. Luckily my kids went to the library while their paintings were drying.

10. Carefully remove the tape from your project and see the beautiful watercolor artwork that was created by these little hands.

I love this project so much that I have even framed one of these heart arts that my three-year-old did as his first painting when he was around 1! It is currently in our “art gallery” at home and it fits right in with the rest of the artworks from artists of all ages.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how kids of all ages can feel successful and create their own beautiful watercolor paintings and heart art projects.

Not only will you create wonderful & easy watercolor paintings, but you will be creating memories that last forever!