Homemade Puffy Paint with 3 Simple Ingredients

Homemade Puffy Paint - Recipe for Play

I am a huge fan of making homemade paint.  It is usually inexpensive, and the possibilities are endless.  When I saw this Dough Paint on Tot Treasures last January I immediately knew I had to give it a try.  Since then I have tweaked the recipe a bit to make it a consistency the boys and I love.  This puffy paint is one of our all time favorite recipes for play.  Here is our complete collection of homemade paint recipes.

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Base Recipe

• 1 cup flour 
• 1 cup salt 
• 1/2-3/4 cup water 

Mix the ingredients until you have the desired consistency. We don't like it too watery, or it gets the paper wet and dries flat. If it is too thick it won't fit through the opening of the squeezy bottle. Mix it well then separate it according to the number of colors you plan to make. Color can be added in many ways: food coloring, liquid watercolors, tempura paint, powdered paint. I most often use food coloring, so my toddlers can safely play with the paint. Spoon the colored paint into squeezy bottles, and get to creating!

Squeezy bottles are great for fine motor practice, and they are just plain fun.

Leave paintings flat overnight to dry.  They will remain raised and firm.

Experiment with color combinations, and have fun!

Other paint recipes we enjoy:

• Two Ingredient Baby and Toddler Safe Paint
• Sensory Pudding Paint
• Edible Sensory Paint

For more homemade paint recipes follow my Recipes for Play board on Pinterest.

*UPDATE*  There are a few notes I'd like to make since originally posting this.

• Eventually the dried paint will crack and flake.  We still have these same paintings pictured above hanging in our upstairs hallway, and there are little spots that have flaked.  Overall the painting look the same as when they were made.

• The paints can last for months and months.  I think the longest I have kept a batch is four months.  I store them in the fridge and pull out when ready to use.  I squeeze a little into the kitchen sink, because sometimes water rises to the top.  I squeeze until what comes out is paint like.

• The amounts of ingredients are really up to the individual.  No two batches turn out the same.  Before adding to squeezy containers make sure you have a good consistency that isn't too thick or runny.  If you've already added the mixture to squeezy bottles before realizing it isn't the right consistency you can still add more water, flour or salt directly in the squeezy bottles then stir with a skewer or something long and straight.

Click the images below for more homemade paint recipes: