Miniature Paint Palette Craft: Add On Activity For Girl Scout Brownie Painter Badge

Working on your Girl Scout Painter Brownie badge? (This makes a great add on for that badge!) Love making mini items for your American Girl Doll? Enjoy anything art related? Then you will love this mini sized pretend paint palette tutorial below! You can also buy the mini paint palette like we have in the photo. We found ours at Michaels in the $1.50 bin. It came with 3 mini canvas each (they were not actual canvas but thin cardboard). They also sell them at WalMart for a fair price. If you find the empty ones you can always add your own white “canvas”. I have also seen them at Dollar Tree from time to time for only $1 each.

Supplies:

White foam
assorted sticky foam colors for paint colors (or use paper)
scissors
pen
tacky glue
hole punch
drink stirrer or straw
piece of black construction paper (only need a tiny piece about 1 inch or less)
mini paint palette (optional)

Make It:

Start by making your paint brush. We used one half a thin straw (drink stirrer) and a tiny piece of black construction paper. We frayed the ends of the paper to make it look like a brush then glued it to the end of the straw.
Next cut out your paint palette and mini “globs” of paint with the craft foam (or paper). If you are doing this with the kids in a large group you may want to pre-make patterns/templates for the palette so they have some more help. Use poster board and label it for them and they can trace and cut on bigger pieces of white foam. Our sizing was about 3 inch long by 2 inches wide. TIP: If you give the kids the sticky colored foam. They don’t even need glue for this step as they can cut out the paint “globs” peel off the back like a sticker and stick them on the palette.
We used a hold punch for the finger section or you can use scissors. For the younger ones a hold punch would be easier. You can then have the kids practice different techniques (see requirements for Painter badge) or free paint/draw and give them some individual paints or big cups for the tables to share. The picture below was from an American Girl Doll class with a Paris Painter theme. We made the aprons, and the girls crafted these painter palettes and painted their own paintings. (We also crafted mini french breads with Crayola Model Magic).