Homemade Watercolor Paint

My daughter is our little artist. She really enjoyed the Chalk Paint we made, but she wanted to bring out the nicer (and smaller) paint brushes. So, I mixed up a smaller amount of the Chalk Paint recipe and let her at it with a fine tipped paint brush. It worked just as good as one of those store bought watercolor trays, but better! Better because it took out the step of having to dip the paint brush in water. That step always complicated things by making huge wet holes in the paper and then she would get really frustrated. She loves this and keeps asking to do it all the time!

This is my son’s work

What You Need:

Cornstarch
Water
Food coloring
Container(s) – cupcake tin, mini cups, empty egg carton, etc
Paintbrush or mini sponges

Directions:

Step 1: Combine 1 part water and 1 part cornstarch. Stir together. I used a total of 1 T. water and 1 T. cornstarch.

Step 2: Divide up mixture into mini containers/cups. The egg carton works well for me, so I don’t have to keep washing the cupcake tin.

Step 3: Add one drop of food coloring to each container.

Step 4: Paint your heart out! You may have to add a little water if your child paints for a long time.

Using the egg carton worked great! Note: The lighter colors are not as fun.

Variations:

If you want a custom color, like orange, you will want to prepare each color/container or mixture separately instead of all together at once. Double the water you want per container and add one drop red, one drop yellow. Then take the half that water and make your cornstarch/water mixture individually for each cup.
- This also works well to delude the colors to get a more pastel look.

If you do not have paint brushes or do not trust your kids with your nice ones, try using Qtips. They worked pretty good and it didn’t matter if the kids were rough with them. We used one for each color to make it easier for more than one artist painting at a time.