We have internet access on this beautiful farm, so I’m going to post something that I drafted a couple days ago…
Maia and I mixed up some puffy paint recently and she got to paint using squeeze bottles, which was a big hit.
This recipe was sent to me by Kimberly Stoney, a woman who tests and develops crafts for a children’s magazine. She’s the one who also sent me the recipe for the Rainbow in a Bag color mixing experiment. Here’s her recipe:
Puffy Paint-not so much about mixing as about colors playing with of each other.
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup of flour
- 2/3 cup of salt
- 2/3 cup of water
- 2 squeeze containers from craft store ($1.99 for package of 2 found in craft store-cake supplies)
- 1 Tablespoon tempera paint –at least 2 colors
- Mix the ingredients together in a big bowl. It will yield enough for 2 containers of wet mix.
- Measure 1/2 of the mix out into a smaller container.
- Add 1 Tablespoon of tempera and mix well.
- Adjust the color by adding 1 teaspoon at a time up to 3extra teaspoons. The consistency will be similar to stirred sour cream.
- Pour into squeeze bottle. Repeat with another color for the second ½ of mix.
- Give the child the bottles and watch them go (mantra here – stay on the paper, stay on the paper)
Put plastic wrap over the open top and screw lid over to store. Discard tiny red cap completely!
It will settle over days if not used. Store the bottles in the fridge for up to week. Shake and remove the plastic wrap for play.
Kids might want to squeeze in one place and not move the squeeze bottle. That’s fine or encourage them to move it around a bit. It will just take a little longer to dry if it thick. When it does dry, the salt turns back into beautiful crystals again and the whole thing glitters. We did ours on foam core scraps and white cardstock- the mix can make paper very soggy-stay away from construction paper (and regular card board ‘weeps” leaving a water stain around the art work – which is fine, just so you are forewarned).
Jean’s note: We used squeeze bottles from the cake decorating section of the craft store as well as one of those plastic icing bags. Both seemed to work well. The puffy paint took a few days to dry completely, but is now very hard.
Hi! My name is Jean and I am mama to two daughters -- a four year old and a newborn. I'm trying to parent in a way that encourages creative expression, imagination, joyfulness, and a love of learning. Thanks for visiting!
Melissa Askins said
Very nice! I think we will try this!
Rebekah said
So could you wash off the paint from the squeeze bottles so that you could reuse them again?
mel said
Oooh! Beautiful! I’m off to find some squeeze bottles…
jo said
looks like another great project to try, thank you.
I have just done a post about bubble painting if you are interested
http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2008/03/bubble-painting.html
evenspor said
Very cool. I think it’s interesting how in both of her pictures she mixed the yellow and blue together in one big mass, then srwiled the red paint all around. Do you think toddlers ever make conscious decisions like that about their art?
Sara said
Fun! I’ll have to put that on our summer ideas list.
The Artful Parent said
We washed the squeeze bottles for reuse. Not the icing bag though, although we probably could have. The paint is mostly flour, salt, and water, so was easy to wash.
growinginpeace said
This is something that looks like fun!
Kym said
I love your little corner of this big old internet! This is my first post but we’ve used several of your ideas in our art projects. This one sounded so fun it prompted me to pass along a link to a friend who teaches first-grade art for her class to try. My son and I just cleaned up after giving it a go today and had a blast! My four year old loved the whole project from start to finish. Measuring and mixing were just as much fun as the painting itself. We used recycled shampoo bottles which worked great. One bottle did have stiffer sides and I noticed he had to work a little too hard for my liking to squeeze the paint out but otherwise perfect. Thanks for sharing this and all the other inspirations you do!
sandyz said
Great idea…
sandy
cute kids too.
Jodi said
great idea – can’t wait to give it a try with my little fella sometime down the road!
ryan707 said
This is great! Shows what can be done with a few ingredients around the house.
shareleann said
adorable! thanks for the recipe!
Rachii said
That is so amazing
thank you
jen smith said
love this! made my shopping list to get the supplies – some type of christmas ornament made from these will be cute!