Rice art is fun (and cool looking!)

The girls were begging for another Rainy Day Project today (no, it’s not raining today, not even close, Ro and Ree are just tickled with the idea of projects), so I pulled out Rice Art. This was a big hit with the little ladies!

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put 1/2 cup of uncooked rice in each bowl (we used brown rice because that’s what’s taking up space in the cupboard not being eaten by our picky little rice connoisseurs). This is Ree, btw:

Add 5-8 drops of food coloring in each bowl (you know we tend to excess, so we probably put in 8-12, there’s just no telling): 

Add 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar to each bowl (it helps to set the colors, or so I hear):

Stir gently (so you don’t fling rice and food coloring all over your kitchen and your mama):

Spread each color flat on a baking sheet. I made four little liners out of tin foil for easy cleanup and so the piles of rice would be easy to pour back in the rinsed bowls later:

Bake for 45 minutes to get it all nice and dry and twinproof and all:

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for the rice to bake and cool off, do NOT do what Ro did and apply semi-permanent stamps all over your body. Sigh…

Then draw some shapes on cardboard (the bigger the shapes the better) and cover parts of your drawing with glue. We used rubber cement, because the girls had used all of the Elmer’s glue in an unfortunate patio-glueing incident last week, and it was REALLY easy to use, but I don’t know if it will hold up as well as Elmer’s once dry. Then sprinkle colored rice on the glue (one color at a time), dump the excess back into your bowl, and voila:

This project was so fun that the girls left all their supplies on the art table and did some more rice art the next day. Ro is in the pink polka-dotted shirt this time:  

I think they turned out really well, and clean-up was a breeze, the girls actually did it all.

Our Rainy Day Project list can always be found in the left sidebar, if you need it. Cheers!

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My friend Leda and her family are in the process of adopting an adorable 8-year-old little girl in China with Thalassemia. They’re fundraising to bring her home right now, and if you’d like to help in any way, please visit her site Fund for Faith to make a donation or purchase neat adoption-themed items that have been donated in Faith’s name.