It's my eternal struggle. I want the children to paint, I truly do, but it can just be so so messy...especially for a two year old who paints for two minutes then requires ten minutes worth of cleanup (and a bath to get it out of his hair). Often enough I bite the bullet and do it anyway, but with Summer comes the marvelous opportunity to do it every day, especially now that we've found this awesomely cheap recipe for making our own sidewalk paint.
You need:-liquid food coloring (like what you find in the spice section at the grocery)
-box o' corn starch
-water
-minimum 8 oz individual containers for each color
Method:-Measure 1/4 cup cornstarch into each cup.
-Add 1/4 cup water to each.
-Drip in 5-10 drops of food coloring.
-Stir it up. At first it will seem as though the cornstarch just won't mix in, but all at once it comes together. Just don't put the water in first or it's significantly tougher to get it to mix up.
-Add more color for intense colors, less for pastel shades. Our box has recipes on the back for additional shades and we found that the 'egg dying' recipes worked great for this.-The finished paint may seem thin, but it paints on just great. You can use more cornstarch next time if you'd prefer a thicker paint.
-We tested on the driveway, fence, and brick, and the paint came off of all the surfaces just fine.
Finally, find your personal painting style. Josie's into painting happy-faced flowers and hopscotch boards, while Jasper's a mix it all together and see how it turns out kind of guy.
*note--One of the comments pointed out that the paint is slippery when it's wet! We didn't test this theory out, but be careful!
more from the collective:
- Frances England CD giveaway!
- butterfly in a chrysalis puppets (so cool!)
- stamping with potatoes and cookie cutters
- printmaking with bubble wrap and corrugated paper
- all craft posts
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