Here at Makerspace, we wholeheartedly believe that kids need a safe space to explore their imaginations and have an outlet for their creativity. Our workshops allow kids to express their individuality while building the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) skills vital to their personal and educational growth.
Of course, your children can visit the Greenbelt Makerspace anytime they want! But, there are certainly ways they can express their creativity at home! One of these ways—painting—fosters children’s’ intellectual development, promotes self-esteem, encourages them to be persistent, and stimulates their imagination. You can opt for store-bought paints, but where’s the fun (and safety!) in that? Check out these 5 simple recipes for edible paints. (As always, please read ingredient labels carefully for any potential food or substance allergies.)
Sidewalk Paint
- Add 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp cornstarch to each section of your 4-section container.
- Add a little less than 1/4 cup of cold water to each section. Add just a little at a time so you don’t over-do it.
- Whisk until the cornstarch has completely dissolved.
- If you’ve played with cornstarch and water before, you’ll know that it is a non-Newtonian fluid, and can turn from liquid to solid, and back again depending on how much you handle it. You want your paint to be thick enough that it drizzles from the whisk.
- Add your food coloring and stir well.
Colorful, Edible Paint for Babies
Making edible paint is so easy with just these two ingredients. Add a few drops of food coloring to the condensed milk and stir! The paint can be a bit sticky, and it doesn’t taste great, so hopefully, it’ll deter your children from eating too much of it. Thankfully if they do eat a large amount, they’ll be perfectly fine!
Homemade Puffy Paint
- Mix 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1-2-3/4 cup of water 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. Add food coloring accordingly.
Edible Apple Paints
- Ground up 1 can of apple pie filling to a purée consistency.
- Divide the purée into three bowls and set them out.
- Add food colorings to the fillings and mix.
- Add some apple pie spice until you can actually smell the deliciousness!
- You can add cornstarch to get a nice finger paint consistency (which is perfect for babies).
Homemade Watercolor Paint
- Mix 4 tbsp baking soda and 2 tbsp white vinegar together and wait for the fizzing to stop.
- Add ½ tsp of light corn syrup and 2 tbsp of cornstarch, and mix well until the cornstarch has dissolved.
- Pour into your containers (double batch of watercolors half-filled all 12 compartments of a mini muffin tin).
- Your mixture will be VERY thick. Cornstarch, when mixed with liquid becomes a Non-Newtonian Fluid which acts like both a solid and a liquid. The trick to keeping it in liquid form, so you can pour it, is to keep stirring it. As soon as you stop stirring, it will settle back into a solid. If that happens, just dig back in with a spoon, and get it moving again, and it will revert back into liquid form.
- Stir in food coloring with a toothpick or popsicle stick and mix well for about a minute.
- For the liquid colors, add 6 drops to get the intense color you’re looking for. An added pinch of cornstarch can help compensate for the extra liquid.
- Now, your watercolor paints have to dry completely. It usually takes up to two days, but sometimes it can take as little as 12 hours.