Homemade Puffy Paint

My niece and nephew came over for a visit on Saturday. Since it was going to be rainy out, I knew I had to come up with something to do that would entertain them for a few hours. I remembered reading about homemade puffy paint from Delaware County Moms and thought that would be a fun craft project. They kids had a blast creating their art projects!


What you need:

Equal parts water, all purpose flour, and salt.
Food Coloring (I used Wilton's Gel Food Dye)
Squeeze bottles (I bought an 18 pk at Michael's. They were $13. I used a 50% coupon and got them for $6.50. If you don't have a 50%, they usually have a printable 40% on their website)

Directions:

Mix flour, water, and salt together in a large bowl with a wire whisk until smooth. Separate about 1/2 cup each into separate bowls. Put a few drops of food color in your desired shade into each bowl. Stir until color is blended through.
If you have a funnel, pour each paint mixture into plastic squeeze bottles. (I didn't have a small enough funnel but it was easy enough pouring it in with a spoon).
Now go make some awesome puffy paint art!

*Kids like to pile on the paint, so it does take a while to dry. You may want to put cardboard under their paper because some of the moisture from the paint does soak through. (Not the color, but the water does get the backing of the paper a bit wet!)

Don't mind Allison's crazy hair. She just got out of swim class :)

Damian with his masterpiece. You can see where the paint is lifted from the page pretty well by the sun.