Donna’s Day: Create bubble-art greeting cards

If your young kids and grandkids like blowing bubbles, they’ll love this activity. When the colored bubbles dry on construction paper, they will become the eye-catching background for a one-of-a-kind work of art.

Here’s the stuff you’ll need:

• Pie pan or wide-mouth cup

• Liquid poster paint

• Liquid dishwashing detergent and water or commercial bubble-blowing solution

• Markers or crayons

• White or light-colored construction paper or cardstock

• Drinking straws

• Paper to cover work table

Now, here’s the fun: Cover your work surface with newspaper or butcher paper. In the pie pan or cup, stir together one cup water, two to three tablespoons of paint and one tablespoon of detergent. Or, add paint to the bubble-blowing solution.

Place a straw in the mixture and blow into the straw to create colored bubbles billowing over the edge of the container. Remove the straw.

Fold a piece of construction paper in half to form a card, or use the front of the card on top of the bubbles and hold it in place until several colored bubbles have popped and transferred their shapes onto the paper.

Continue the process with different colors, if you wish. Set aside to dry. If the bubble prints are not as dark as you’d like, add more paint to the mixture and blow again.

Use markers to add drawings to the dried bubble prints, such as a jet flying through the bubble “clouds” for a “Bon Voyage” card. Write a message inside the card and sign it.

Tuck into an envelope for a unique greeting or summer thank-you note to a friend or relative.

Note: Remind children to be careful not to suck on the straw when blowing the bubble solution. If you clip two holes about halfway down the straw, children will be less able to suck in the bubbles.