This cool craft for kids uses recycled items so it’s practically free! Secret Pictures are a fun activity for one child or a children party activities.

With the stub of a white candle or a white crayon, draw a picture, pressing hard. Your picture will be invisible until you paint over it with a watercolor wash.

Put a few drops of water on your chosen watercolor palette. While the paint is getting soft, use your brush and clean water to stroke across your paper to make it completely wet. Be careful not to scrub the paper.

Load your paintbrush with color and, starting at the top, stroke from one edge of the paper across to the other, all the way. Continue loading and stroking until the whole paper is covered with paint.

Look at your drawing now. Was it a success? Did you press hard enough with the crayon or wax to make the lines show through the paint? Was your paint dark enough so that the lines were clearly visible?

A fun way to do Secret Pictures as a children party activities is to have each child draw the secret picture, then each child passes their picture to the person to their right who discovers the secret while applying the color wash.