Bean Art!

Super awesome photo submission from of the kids bean art! This week we passed out beans, a piece of cardboard, some glue and paint to create bean art.

Want to make bean art at home? Here's how you can do it!

You will need

• Scrap cardboard

• White glue

• Pencil

• Dried beans (various sizes and shapes)

• Folk Art Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paint

• Paintbrushes

Step 1

Cut your scrap cardboard down to whatever size you like – these ones are slightly bigger than postcards, and we used a few different sizes to mix it up. Use a pencil to roughly sketch out the character you’d like to create. It’s super helpful to use the movie posters as a reference when you’re doing this.

Step 2

Start by applying a thin layer of glue over the inside of the drawing, sticking to one color for now. For Dab-Dab the duck, we did the beans over her feathers first, doing the eye detail as well. Allow the glue to dry.

Step 3

We wanted the feathers to be ultra white, so we gave them a quick coat of white paint. You don’t have to be too tidy around the edges of the beans, because these will be covered with more beans later. Let paint dry.

Step 4

Next we glued on the beak, using slightly smaller beans for some difference in texture. Again, let the glue dry.

Step 5

Like before, paint the beak and let it dry. This time though, you’ll have to be a little more careful when painting around the feathers so that you have a nice tidy edge there.

Step 6 Repeat this process until the entire cardboard is covered. For Dab Dab, we just filled in the background with split peas, let dry, and gave a coat of paint. Finally, use a touch of black paint for the eye detail and your bean portrait is complete!

Use this same method for all your favorite Dolittle characters, simply gluing and painting one color at a time to make the process as simple as possible.