Is your backyard home to a few snails? This mom’s yard was, so she came up with a kid-friendly (and snail-friendly) activity that resulted in some pretty cool-looking art.

Lindsey, the blogger behind Filthy Wizardry, diluted some food coloring with water, then spread a large piece of paper out on the patio while the kids captured some snails from the grass. Don’t worry — no snails were harmed in the process.

The participating snails were then dipped into the dyed water, just on the bottom, and placed on the paper. After the initial confusion wore off, they began exploring, leaving trails of color behind them.

As you can imagine, it took the snails a while to create the finished piece. That was okay by Lindsey, though. The modern world is all about instant gratification, so she says she was happy to find an activity that taught her kids about appreciating the slower things in life, too. After all, patience is a virtue.

The snails will likely move in a random pattern, but you can try and coax them in one direction or another with snacks like lettuce or grass. And since food coloring is nontoxic and meant to be ingested, the snails are completely fine — if a bit more colorful — after the experience. According to Lindsey, their collaborators can still be seen inching though the yard, identified by the remaining touches of color.

Here’s the finished project, which hangs in Lindsey’s home.

It now hangs vertically on one of the kitchen cabinets.

You can see where the snails left the paper to return to the grass. “From the trails,” Lindsey says, “it looks like the snails have all disappeared into the cupboard. Gross.”

(via Visual News, Filthy Wizardry)

If this sounds like something you’d like to try, remember to be very gentle with the snails, and encourage your kids to be careful as well; they’re living creatures, after all. Use only food safe, nontoxic food coloring, and only dip the very bottoms of the snails’ bodies into the dyed water. Avoid getting it on their heads or eye-stalks.

You’ll also want to limit the amount of time the snails are on the paper, especially if it’s in the sun. You can even switch out snails if you have enough nearby. When you’re done, return the snails to where you found them. See if you can spot them later!