
I love a fun artful experiment. My fave crafts and DIYs to make are the ones that are easy to do, but are very visually satifying. This rainbow cloud experiment definitely fills that bill. With just a few household supplies including shaving cream and food coloring, you can have this fun color exploration with the kiddos (or create cool photo ops for your Instagram feed or story) and learn about diffusion in the process.
What you need
– Shaving cream
– Small containers
– 3-4 colors of food coloring
– eyedropper
– clear bowl or vase
– water
This experiment showcases the process of diffusion; diffusion is the mixing of molecules due to their random motion, whether in a liquid or a gas. With food coloring, the water remains a solvent while the food coloring is the solute. When they are mixed, they make a solution.
Start off by mixing 4 to 5 drops of food coloring with two to three tablespoons of water in a small container. I used small plastic containers made for storing dressings, sauces, etc. Next add water to your vase, filling it 3/4 to the top. Squirt out shaving cream on top to make a pile that looks similar to a cloud. Use your eye dropper to squeeze in your each color of your food coloring. Drop in one color at a time and watch it as it diffuses into the water. It is super satisfying to watch, so make sure to get your camera ready. Add in drops of other colors. The more drops you will add, the more you’ll notice how the colors start blending together into a muddy color. At this point, you’ll want to start the process over and pour out your water and shaving cream and start again.
I created this project for my friends at Darby Smart, where you can find it on their Darby Smart app! It’s a super fun app filled with tons of cool DIYs, beauty hacks, slime recipes and so much for. There’s even a cool video editor tool that lets your film, import, and speed up and add titles to your videos. It makes is so easy to get creative and make your own DIY videos!
I hope you enjoyed this project and it inspires you to create and experiment with supplies you already have on hand.