I remember doing finger paints with my oldest and he loved it. However, I would purchase the paints and by the end of one session he would have mixed them together or dumped them all out and they would be done after one time. This was certainly not cost-effective. Of course, the internet wasn't as cool as it is today and thankfully, there is access to all sorts of cool things online that helps us to save money while doing art with this kids. Now there are many ways to make paint but one of the easiest that we found simply mixing corn starch and warm water on the stove.
Ingredients:
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Cornstarch
Food coloring
Heat on the stove on medium until consistency is 'paintlike' This recipe will make about 4 cups of paint.
Once it is warm and into the individual cups (you can also use muffin tins... something I didn't think of when we did this but will be trying next time) you can use popscicle sticks or metal spoons for easy stirring. Mix in a few drops of color and create the color you want. I have found that working with main primary colors is easiest because little fingers will mix it up anyways.
This is the color making stage. We went with blue, pink, purple, and green. Very festive!
Look... purple!
You can crunch up the art when you are done and it comes out in crinkles like this. We have hung them on the sliding glass door and it adds a nice ambiance to the room. We also have another which was blue and pink. They came out really cute.
