We made our own watercolor paints the other day. How cool is that?! They were easy and didn't require many ingredients, just stuff we already had in the kitchen (food coloring, corn starch, corn syrup, baking soda, white vinegar).
Homemade Watercolor Paints Recipe
(Recipe found on this yahoo article)
INGREDIENTS
- 3 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 6 tablespoons cornstarch
- 6 tablespoons baking soda
- 6 tablespoons white vinegar
- Food coloring
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Mix corn syrup, cornstarch, baking soda, and white vinegar together.
2. Divide into jar lids, small containers, or (as we did) plastic egg carton sections.
3. Add food coloring to each section as desired to make your colors.
4. Let dry. (Note: stir the paints a couple times as they are drying but before they get too hard. Otherwise the materials separate a bit.)
As usual, Maia had as much fun measuring and mixing the ingredients as painting with the finished product. Possibly more.
I divided the base mixture into egg carton cups.
Maia added food coloring and mixed it in.
Then we both painted with our new watercolor paints!
They worked pretty well and were translucent like other watercolors. They dry a little powdery though, because of all the cornstarch and baking soda, which isn't a bad thing, just something I noticed.
Have any of you tried making your own watercolors? Or other paints?
So far, besides watercolors, we've made salt paint and puffy paint. Making them is as fun as using them in our house, so I'd love to try some others.
