I’ve always been in awe of my college roommate Kara. She’s an architect. Totally smart. With an amazing sense of style. As I watched her grow in her career, I realized that architecture is the perfect Left Brain Craft Brain kind of career. It integrates all sides of the brain. It’s the intersection of engineering and design. And it’s one of the fields that impacts our daily life (just think about all those things you wish were different in your house!). So the other day, my girl and I got talking about architecture and we got designing and building a Watercolor Paper House so we could be architects, work our brains and do a little STEAM.
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Watercolor Houses Supplies Needed
These houses become beautiful pieces of art after you build and add color.
- Watercolor Houses Printable Template
- Plain printer paper
- 140 lb. watercolor paper
- Scissors
- Box cutter
- Ruler
- Liquid watercolors
- Pipettes, droppers or paint brushes
Build Your Watercolor Paper House
- First print out your template on printer paper. Cut around the solid black lines. To cut out the windows, grab an adult and a box cutter.
- Then trace around your templates onto the watercolor paper and cut out along the solid lines. Repeat with the box cutter.
- Fold your house along where the dotted lines would be (you can mark them with a pencil if it helps). Also fold roof in half along dotted line.
- Now, add double sided tape on each of the flaps and tape together. Add the roof and tape to the base.
Time to Watercolor Your Paper House
Now it’s time to add the flavor to your house! Grab some liquid watercolors and a bunch of pipettes or brushes. Then try different techniques like dripping, splattering and brushing. Squirt guns would be fun too!! This is all about the process and exploring how the colors of the house come out. Or they can play house painter and be more exact. Let your child be the guide.
Encourage Young Architects
Do you have a kiddo that loves to build? There are great ways to extend this project. First, challenge them to modify the template to build a house totally unique to them. Then encourage them to use different materials to add the style to the house. It makes a great surface for a mixed media collage or zentangle.
Then invite them to read along with Iggy Peck, Architect, one of our favorite reads. Iggy loves to build with pretty much anything! Get inspired with this list of 100 Invitations to Build.
Then encourage them to explore different styles of archicture. Babble Dabble Do has some more printable house templates inspired by Le Corbusier. We love a little mid-century design in a kid-friendly project.
28 Days of STEAM – More Learning Fun!
This project is part of an amazing, month-long series of hands on STEAM projects for kids. Click on over to 28 Days of STEAM for 60+ FREE science, tech, engineering, art, and math projects from 30+ education writers. All ready to get your kids excited to learn.
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