I have half of my buffet drawers filled to the brim with kid craft supplies, and my boys love nothing more than to break them out and start making something. Recently we were all out of watercolors and they wanted to do “crafts.” So we searched for a fingerpaint recipe, and found lots with dish soap added. It seemed a little strange to me, so I was happy that we finally found a recipe without it. I upped the heat in the recipe because it just wasn’t thickening, and it worked. The colors are bright and beautiful!
recipe:
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 cups cold water
food coloring (AmeriColor is my favorite)
Mix all ingredients except food coloring well with a whisk. Set over medium low heat.
Stir about 15- 20 minutes until thickened. If you are still wondering if it is thickened, it isn’t. The mixture goes from water consistency to thickened very quickly towards the end of the time period, so don’t worry – you will know.
Let cool. Distribute evenly into bowls or cups.
Add food coloring — a little bit will do — and mix with a spoon.
I suggest watercolor paper or some other thicker paper for this paint. It has a thick texture and is wonderful for sensory development. I even had fun painting!
Let the little ones paint away and once you’re done, let it dry overnight.
cherry / 207 posts
This is AWESOME! Thanks Jenny! You have no idea how many times I have used your play dough recipe! Unfortunately Americolors did not work for me, they bled on my LOs hands and on my table!! I used McCormick food coloring instead.
pea / 21 posts
Most paint recipes have soap so that they wash off everything really easily. Did you have to wash this paint off of anything? I’m curious whether it would need to be an outside activity if it might stain the table?
The colors you used are beautiful!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Can’t wait until LO is old enough to paint!
Soooon!
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
Thanks! I think I’ll try this very soon. My mom is helping with lo for a while and I know she’ll love it as much as lo does!
persimmon / 1465 posts
Looks beautiful! How “washable” are the paints? Will they wash out of LO’s clothes?
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I saw this recipe too, and another mom suggested adding the dish soap to it to make it a bit easier to wash out. The pics of the end consistency are helpful, I didn’t try it because I wasn’t sure how thick it was supposed to get.
I have to try those Americolors, I am a bit worried about staining, but then again, nothing that we have is too precious to get stained.
GOLD / pomelo / 5167 posts
Oooo this is awesome! I like the idea of a little dishsoap in there. Must try it out!
guest
oooo! This is great. I think I’m going to do this with my kids.
guest
I didn’t have any staining issues on my wooden dining table but our hands were. =) I didn’t take any chances so I stripped her down to unders and had her paint that way. More fun for her anyway. I’m just curious as to how the extras should be stored? My daughter and my husband had fun painting.
guest
Tried this on a small canvas for fathers day. Loved the idea as it seeed safer than commercial brands. However, I found that once the paint dried it started flaking off! Even on paper the paint didn’t seem to ‘adhere’ very well. I didn’t add dish soap, but rubbed vaseline over LO’s hands before we started, so the clean up was very easy, simply wiped off and no staining
Will use again, but just for muck around play.
guest
Look forward to making this and will share the link. Thanks
grapefruit / 4584 posts
I loved this recipe – thanks! I added a little bit of dish soap and had no issues with staining or flaking once the paint was dry. However, my paints ended up with a very translucent finish…I’m wondering if maybe I needed more corn starch. They were still lots of fun though; my 11-month old “painted” on top of pictures I did in black sharpie marker (daddy and baby stick figures and “I love my daddy”) for a Father’s Day gift.
We also discovered (partly by accident) that these make really fun bathtub paints if you want to rein in the mess a little bit!
guest
I’ve been looking for this to make for my grandsons and I finally found this for the ingredients! I shared this on my blog with a link back here for the tutorial. Thanks! ~Yolanda~
guest
This was a great tutorial! Thank you for sharing!
guest
Thank you! Just made the base and waiting for it to cool right now before adding food coloring. Can’t wait to do this with my 17 month old girl!
Question: Can the leftovers be kept? Maybe in the refrigerator in squeeze bottles? Thanks!