How to paint fireworks

I recall as a child that a painting of fireworks was de-rigeur for this time of year, along with the Public Safety adverts that put the fear of God into me as far as spending time with actual fireworks. Even now I am happy to watch from the safety of my own home, pick up the detritus from others’ fireworks that has landed in my garden (man that stuff travels) and teach LBG how to make a fireworks painting with a cotton bud (that’s Q-tip to you people from across the pond…)

You need:

black paper or card

bright paint (I used neon but bold colours work well too)

cotton buds (Q-tips)

Dip the end of the cotton bud into the paint, then drag across the black paper. Create starbursts by dragging the cotton bud out from a central point in spikes…….what about a spiral Catherine Wheel? Use a dry cotton bud to drag the paint outwards from the spiral to create the streaks that the buzzing wheels make in the sky.

This is one of those activities which works well for a wide variety of ages, and where you can leave the picture entirely up to the child, although I should warn you that mine soon had her hands in the paint. *sigh*

You can  embellish by sprinkling glitter on the wet paint too.