I just sat down to get started on taking the pictures on today’s “Tuesday Tutorial” and then realised that pattern pieces and designs are currently sitting in my husband’s laptop bag, that is currently sitting in an office in North Sydney. Oops. I guess that’s what I get for scribbling down my ideas the moment inspiration strikes… and writing them on the back of his meeting notes! In my defence, I promise they did just look like scraps of paper.
So just a quickie today, and hopefully I should be able to get a more substantial tutorial up either tomorrow or Thursday, “Tutorial Thursday” sounds just as good, right?
My toddler loves to finger paint and get messy, but he’s still at that stage where as far as he’s concerned everything is edible, nothing is safe from going into his mouth, and so I’m somewhat hesitant in buying poster paints from stores without knowing exactly what’s in them and what he’s ingesting, and so this is my fix, non-toxic toddler safe paint where I know exactly what’s in it.
Fern’s Fabulous Recipe For Toddler Safe Paint
Throw two cups of any kind of flour you have laying around the house into a bowl, add COLD water until it forms a fairly smooth paste free of any big lumps, then slowly add freshly boiled (kettle is fine) HOT water, stirring constantly until it forms the right consistency – if you’re finger painting you’ll want it to be a little thicker, so add less water obviously.
Split the mix into however many colours you’d like, add a few drops of food dye to each pot and you have non-toxic completely toddler safe “paint”, they can eat as much as that like, and although it won’t taste fabulous (Declan gave up after one mouthful) you will know exactly what they’re putting in their mouth. Considering the amount of paint a toddler can go through as well, this is a far cheaper alternative to buying bottle after bottle of poster paint.
Only make up as much as you’ll need for each paint session as it doesn’t keep for more than 24 hours without going crunchy and hard. You can see some of my son’s finished artwork using the flour paint here, these were several months ago and they still look just as good now, you can’t tell that they weren’t made using “real” paint.
This is a fabulous idea!! I will so have to make some for my little brother and little sister, who I am assuming are pretty near your son’s (who is adorable) age.
It is a fabulous recipe indeed! Thank you very much for this. My 1 year-old will love it. I caught him eating chalk this morning (yuk!), so this homemade paint will be just perfect for us!
Feel free to post the finished masterpieces guys! Toddler artwork is the best
Great idea Fern, I just emailed it to my sister…. last time I was painting with my niece I accidentally let her drink the brush water – at least if she does it with this paint I won’t get in as much trouble
oh thats awesome!!! I’m going to have to try it!!
Hey Fern. Check it out:
http://www.littlebitabout.com/2008/08/craftblog-to-rescue.html
Just wondering, does the food die stain their hands? I used food dye as a wash with some kids and it stained their hands for ages. Hopefully it doesn’t happen for this paint
[...] Shameless Plug: Non-toxic toddler safe paint recipe. [...]
great idea! we are definetly trying this out!
thanks for this great idea! will definitely try it tomorrow with my son
this is a great idea I am going to try this with my daughter tomorrow, thanks for the info!!
Well thats done it for me – I’m bookmarking your site!
Im normally more a reader than commenter – and have given in to the temptation to post twice in one day!
I just wanted to thank you for this recipe – it’s also about to be handed on to the kids kindy teacher. She makes her own play dough but uses commercial paint – so hopefully they will find use for this, I know I will at home.
Thanks again! Crafy
Hi… I was wondering.. would this stand up if you put on material and wash it?? Im looking for a paint thats safe for kids to make hand prints to put on a quilt square for their teacher. Let me know..thanks!!
No Candace, it won’t. I’d suggest using fabric paint and putting the kids in full art smocks or old clothes
Stumbling by – GREAT CRAFT IDEA! Thanks!
[...] You can buy an stand up easel and butcher paper and crayola washable paint. Or even better you can make your own edible toddler paint (Fem’s Fabulous Recipe for Toddler Safe Paint) [...]
[...] http://craftblog.com.au/2008/08/05/toddler-safe-paint-recipe/ [...]