Kim Becker {aka MommyKnows}
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DIY Colourful Paint for Kids

in DIY / Tutorials, Family

I made the mistake of showing Georgia Pinterest on my iPad. She has a list of projects a mile long for us to do together. It’s a good thing school starts next week.

First up was making our own paint. She loves to paint. The recipe/instructions were so easy how could I say, “no”? I couldn’t!

DIY Easy Paint for the Kids

The original recipe is from Get Your Mess On! (thank you!) and calls for just one cup of water. This is actually for a puffy paint recipe to be used in squirt bottles. I didn’t have squirt bottles and couldn’t find them cheap at the dollar store, so I came up with this slightly altered version (OK, watered-down version), to be used in pots and applied with brushes.

You will need:

1 cup of salt
1 cup of flour
1.5 cups of water
1 tsp oil (makes it shiny)
Food colouring of your choice

Containers for your paint. I bought mine at the dollar store, they were 3 for $1 and have a nice rubber seal on the lid.

Mix salt, flour, water and oil in a medium mixing bowl. Divide into paint pots. Add food colouring and mix well.

This is a great recipe to let the kids make with very little help from mom or dad. Georgia did all the measuring, mixing and colouring. I sat off to the side with a wet cloth and helped her to clear up the odd spill etc.

Georgia using her homemade paint

She is very pleased with the results!

Enjoy!

MKxo

8 comments… add one

  • dima March 13, 2013, 8:19 am

    Nise. Like it!

  • chance August 27, 2013, 9:57 pm

    Does it stain? And do you think the paint would be ok on cavas or just paper?

  • Fun Crafts For Kids January 10, 2014, 2:48 am

    Alas – as, I found out the hard way when making home-made Silly Putty, any crafts made with food coloring does stain. There’s a special type of food coloring that doesn’t stain and for the life of me I can’t think of it at the moment, but I think they have it at Michael’s and I plan to stock up on it soon. There are so many fun projects that require food coloring and it would be nice to not have to worry about stains.

  • ida December 21, 2014, 9:51 pm

    i tryed this today but i can feel the salt in the paint so i was wondering if you used hot water and cooled it down?

  • Beachgal7 April 15, 2016, 4:22 pm

    This was a complete failure….it would not paint on any type of paper….

  • Lauren Cable June 1, 2016, 1:05 am

    Is it toxic? I made it and my son decided to lick a little bit off his fingers I tried to wipe his fingers before he could, but you know how quick kids are and I have 3 to look after lol

  • Selkie Paget April 15, 2017, 5:25 am

    I use the shaving cream/Elmer’s glue recipe for my puffy paint.

  • Diana August 1, 2017, 7:15 pm

    I help out a resource center at an apartment complex, teaching art. Having a recipe to make paint would be fabulous! I’m concerned about the food coloring – these kids get the paint on themselves, clothes. Cheap acrylics wash off hands/arms/legs/faces easily. Any advice would be most helpful! I want to help these kiddos – my income is limited!

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