DIY Finger Paints & A Project

Welcome to the very first Toddler Tuesday!  I've got something absolutely great for you guys today.  We are going to start with a finger paint recipe and finish with a project (and have lots of adorable baby pictures along the way).

I have been wanting to let my babies finger paint, but didn't want to pay the high price or expose them to whatever is in finger paint.  I know that Crayola is non-toxic, but my baby girl eats absolutely EVERYTHING!  I did some online research and found a few different recipes for finger paints.  The one I am going to share today is the easiest one with the best results.  My favorite part is that it doesn't matter if Leah eats paint!  Everything in the paint is also something I use frequently for cooking!

Here's what you will need:

3 Tbsp. Sugar

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 c. Corn Starch

2 c. Water

Small containers with lids

Food coloring

For project:

Paper and/or canvas

Tape and/or stickers

So now that you have gathered all of your supplies, let's get started.

Start by putting the 2 c. water into a small/medium saucepan.  Mix in the sugar, salt, and corn starch.  Heat over medium, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. 

Note: One minute it will look like milk and then BOOM! insta-magically it will thicken....well, almost that quick anyway.  Cool the mixture and spoon into small containers.

Add food coloring to achieve desired colors.  I found that yellow and green only required 3-4 drops while blue and red required 6-8 drops to fully take color.  I threw in pink for my girls as well, but this was a neon gel color, so it really doesn't get measured in drops...I guess a nice firm squirt?  At any rate, mix and match the colors until you get what you want out of them.  Put the lids on to use later or use immediately...up to you.  This makes a pretty thick paint.  If you have too much cornstarch it will become chunky.  If you like a thinner paint, feel free to add more water when mixing.

Disclaimer: While the paint is safe to consume in small amounts (ex. in the case of baby hands in the mouth), this paint is not intended for consumption in larger volumes or as snack food.  --Just saying.

Laney says it doesn't taste good

Now for the project!  Oh yeah, the baby pictures are coming!

First, you will want to take tape or stickers and creat a design of your choice on your paper or canvas.  For my little ones, I did a number 1 and a number 2 on scrapbook paper since their birthdays are coming up soon.  Laney, who is 7, needed a little more of a challenge.  I used the cricut to cut out a Bible verse from vinyl, then placed the stickers on a canvas.

Don't try exceedingly hard to get these straight

Then just let them have at it!  Let them go wild and paint to their little hearts' content.  I tried to gently encourage some handprints and things of that nature, but I don't know how many we actuall ended up with.  Oh well.

Somehow I knew she was going to eat it....Sigh....

Once they have finished their masterpieces (or have gotten enough of playing in the paints), find a place to let the pictures dry where they won't be disturbed.  If you used the stickers or vinyl letters, you want to watch how long you let them paint.  If the letters stay wet longer than 20-30 minutes, they start falling off.....I am going to have to use some white paint to rescue an "s".

see the "s" I have to rescue?

Once the paintings have dried thoroughly (they will be pretty soaked), you just need to peel off the stickers or tape to reveal the letter, number, or verse underneath.  I used white paper and white canvas.  If you wanted to use a colored paper to reveal a colored background, you could certainly do that as well.  If you use a longer verse or smaller script like we did for Laney's, I recommend avoiding yellow...the letter edges don't show up as well on yellow.

Thank you so much for joining me for Toddler Tuesday.  I hope you enjoyed the project and exorbitant amount of baby/kid pictures.  Did you and your kids do this project?  If so, post pics or tell me about it!  If you have questions, ask away.

We are all tuckered out from our big project!  Let's see mommy try to get our pj's on now...