Making your own homemade paint with kids is a rewarding process that helps children understand that store-bought is not the only way!
Using a combination of salt, flour, and water, this recipe is beyond simple.
How we made homemade paint
My toddler is at that stage where she loves squeezing paint out of the bottles.
I gave into this to give her the chance to explore this phenomena, but after using an inordinate amount of paint in the process, I thought it might be more frugal to make a batch of homemade salt and flour paint for more economical squeeze painting.
This homemade paint recipe is simple, non-toxic, and it costs next to nothing to make. Not to mention it’s pretty rewarding to make your own art materials.
I made these while my daughter was napping, but next time I’ll include her in the process. The following recipe makes enough paint to fill three 2-ounce squeeze bottles.
UPDATE: A lot of people have asked if this is good paint for painting a wall or painting an archival masterpiece. Please note this is not a tempera or acrylic paint replacement. This paint is perfect for exploring the process of squeezing paint for kids, but it’s not meant for lasting art that will hang over the mantle.
Recipe for Homemade Salt and Flour Paint
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water
Blend 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of salt. Add 1/2 cup of water…
and mix until smooth.
Divide it up into three sandwich bags and add a few drops of liquid watercolor or food coloring to each bag.
Squish them up until the “paint” is well blended. Use Ziplock bags if small children are helping with this step. Add more water if you’d like a thinner paint. Cut a corner off the baggie and squeeze the paint mixture into your squeeze bottle.
This homemade paint came out pretty thick, and was a little hard to squeeze. Next time we’ll dilute it with a bit more water.
That’s an easy fix. If yours is also too think, just thin with water.
The good news is that the paint dries quickly. The squeeze paintings we made with regular tempera paint (2 days ago) are still wet, while these are already completely dry! And they have a nice puffy, sparkly texture too!
If you’re looking for a smooth paint (like tempera from the art store), this paint may be disappointing.
Because of the salt, it will have a grainy texture to it, which makes it great for squeezing and not so good for painting with a brush
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A question for you:
What’s your favorite kind of paint and/or painting process?
More homemade art and paint recipes
Our favorite toddler art recipe homemade playdough. It’s easy to make, non-toxic, and inexpensive. This recipe has been successfully used thousands of times.
More Art Projects for Toddlers
For more toddler art projects, you may enjoy the easy-to-set-up activities that use mainly everyday materials in 12 Simple Art Projects for Toddlers.
