How To Make Rainbow Batik With Kids

May 29, 2014 by Sherri Osborn Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for a rainy-day craft that’s messy in the best way and guaranteed to brighten your home, rainbow batik is the perfect project. This simple DIY batik technique uses supplies you already have around the house and gives your kids a chance to create artwork that looks just as vibrant as fabric you’d find in a market overseas.

Unlike traditional batik, which relies on hot wax and special dyes, this kid-friendly version is safe, easy, and completely adaptable. Whether you’re homeschooling, planning a weekend project, or just want to keep little hands busy after school, rainbow batik will bring out your child’s inner artist.

What is Batik?

Batik is an ancient fabric art technique where wax is applied to cloth in patterns or designs, then dyed to create striking, colorful effects. Once the wax is removed, the designs remain crisp and bold against the background colors.

For kids, we swap out wax and fabric for more accessible materials like glue, crayons, and washable paints. The results still mimic the bold, resist-style patterns of batik without the hazards.

When I found this project, I immediately went on a search around my home for a plain white anything I could try this with! Such a fun project to do with the family or even with a larger group of kids. All you need is some Elmer’s Gel Glue, some acrylic paint, and something to make a rainbow batik design on.

Learn how to make your own batik design using these directions and step-by-step pictures on Our Creative Day.

Variations to Try

Seasonal Batik: Try snowflakes in winter blues, flowers in spring pastels, or autumn leaves in warm oranges and browns.
Personalized Gifts: Create batik-style tote bags or pillowcases as DIY presents for grandparents.
Paper Batik: If you don’t have fabric handy, thick watercolor paper works as a substitute.

Rainbow batik is one of those rare crafts that looks impressive but is simple enough for even the youngest artists. Parents love it because it sparks creativity without needing expensive supplies, and kids love it because they can splash paint around and watch the patterns magically appear.

So next time your little ones are climbing the walls on a rainy afternoon, grab the glue, mix up some colors, and let them dive into a world of rainbow batik. Their finished masterpiece might just be fridge-worthy—or even frame-worthy.

Check out these Batik tye-dye kits we found on Amazon.

Have you read?

Books About Bugs Through the Seasons

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

What is Batik?

Variations to Try

Have you read?

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