Mess Free Painting - Little Brian Paint Sticks Review

Who says painting has to be messy! It’s not that I dislike mess, with a toddler I am quite happy to set him up with messy play and sensory play set ups, but sometimes I don’t have the time to deal with the clean up involved with painting. So when Little Brian offered to send us their Mini Paint Sticks to test out I jumped at the chance of a mess free painting idea.

**Disclosure – We were sent the products for this post free of charge but all opinions are our own**

What are the Little Brian Paint Sticks

In essence they are just like little glue sticks but with highly pigmented paint instead of glue in them. They are the perfect size for little hands to grip, and you simply turn the bottoms to push the stick of paint up as you use them. They don’t need water or brushes, dry almost instantly, and are washable. Pretty much a parents dream for crafting right there!

The set we were sent were the mini paint stick pack of 24 which are slightly smaller than the originals so perfect for littler toddler hands. Elian had no problem using them, turning the bottoms wasn’t an issue so he could easily play with them independently. The pack contained 12 regular coloured paints, 6 neon coloured paints and 6 metallic paints. All of which was super pigmented, so produce really bright vibrant colours easily.

Testing out the Little Brian Paint Sticks

I decided to test out the mess free painting in 2 different ways. The sticks say they can be used on a multitude of surfaces, canvas, wood, paper, card and even glass (which can then be washed off). So I opted to try some tape resistant painting on paper, but then also to have a go using them on ceramic. They don’t say they are compatible with ceramic but I figured it would be worth a go.

Tape Resist Painting

If you haven’t tried tape resist painting before it is a super easy little craft to set up. All you need is paper, your choice of paints and washi or another paper based tape (preferably one that isn’t too sticky or it becomes hard to peel off the paper) Using the tape make a picture on your paper (we made a basic rocket shape) then simple cover the rest of your paper with paint, once dry peel off the tape to leave the negative white space of the picture.

The paint sticks worked perfectly for this toddler craft as Elian was easily able to paint all over the paper without worrying about the paper becoming too soggy. It all dried pretty much instantly so he didn’t get it all over his hands when painting different sections. It really was the perfect mess free painting craft for him to enjoy. Plus because of the consistency of the paint sticks the tape was easy to peel off. We will definitely be doing more tape resist painting in the future. Next time I want to try it on a canvas to see how that works.

Painting on Ceramics

Ok so it didn’t list ceramics on the box as a surface these sticks could be used on, but I thought it would be a fun experiment for them. I bought this easter bunny money box for Elian as an Easter craft but never got around to doing it with him. Plus it needs proper paints which I was sure would result in a lot of mess. So I set him up one morning with a mess free painting option using the Little Brian Paint Sticks instead, and just left him to it.

Turns out they paint really well on ceramic! Or at least they did on the money box….now wondering if they would also paint on tiles or if they might not dry properly…thats the next experiment! The only down side that was kinda difficult was due to it not being a flat surface. Because of the shape of the bunny the sticks couldn’t get into all the spaces, but that is obviously my fault for choosing an awkward canvas to paint! The sticks did glide onto the surface beautifully though, super easy for Elian colour it in.

Overall opinion of the mess free painting with Little Brian Paint Sticks

I really love these little sticks! They make painting with Elian so much easier and stress free, especially when I don’t have the time to deal with cleaning up afterwards. He had lots of fun painting independently. He actually hates getting paint on his hands, and makes me clean them off multiple times usually, but with these I literally hand to give him a quick wipe down afterwards where he had got a little paint rubbed on the side of his hand as he painted.

I was most impressed by just how pigmented and vibrant these paint sticks were. They paint so easily and need very little effort when using them, but the colour outcome is brilliant as you can see on the bunny. This is even true of the metallic and neon paints too.