This homemade puffy paint recipe is such a hit with kids!
We love exploring new ways to paint and create art. My daycare kids love to get messy and painting is one of their favorite art activities. I’m always trying to find new ways for them to explore paint. From painting with trains to using cardboard to printmaking with recycled materials we are always trying to switch things up. This simple homemade puffy paint recipe was perfect for kids that love art and sensory play!
Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe
While looking for a fun and easy painting project to throw together, I came across this homemade puffy paint recipe stashed away in my file of recipes from my preschool teacher days. This activity has a fun science element that requires the microwave but if you don’t have one handy check out our no-cook puff paint!
Keep reading to see how we made this fun sensory paint.
Homemade Puff Paint:
- 1 tbsp self-rising flour
- 1 tbsp salt
- A few drops of food coloring
- Water
- Microwave
Add salt, flour, and a few drops of food coloring. Gradually stir in water to form a paste-like paint mixture. One of ours (yellow, not pictured in) ended up being more watery when applied but it still worked.
My recipe card says heavier paper, cardstock or cardboard but all I had on hand was regular construction paper. We just used that and really didn’t have any issues with it other than the paper curled up on two edges when it was cooked and dried.
…and yes we did use a pizza box and plastic chair for our outdoor table. At least it’s clean and unused, I got it from our local pizza place to use for our pretend “Pizza Shop” we had a few weeks ago. Our other table is currently covered in sand from our sand table 🙂
When your kids are done painting place in microwave for 10 to 30 seconds. Each of ours took about 30 seconds to get puffy.
My daughter and the daycare kids are mostly younger toddlers (two and under) and like to paint fairly thinly (like the blue pictured above). I was a little concerned that they wouldn’t get the effect we had talked about as we made the paint but most of it (even our watered-down yellow) actually turned out puffy.
The sections where they had piled on more did turn out the best though.
The kids decided they wanted to try it on the contact paper we had sitting out for another project so we cut a piece of contact paper and they painted on the sticky side. I wasn’t sure how this version would turn out but it actually seemed to do ok, even in the microwave.
Our contact paper versions made beautiful suncatchers!
If you are looking for a fun new painting project to do with your kids give this homemade puffy paint recipe a try today! It’s super easy but your kids will have a great time!
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