We absolutely love painting in our home! We paint just about every day. Water paints are great especially with smaller children, they are relatively easy to clean up and there is far less mess than acrylic paints.
As my daughter Vivienne has gotten older, she is learning to blend colours, and experiment with them in the most wonderful ways. Needless to say we go through a lot of paint! We decide to combine our two activities – making and painting and we made homemade water colour paints.
This is what you need:
4 Tablespoons bicarb
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
½ teaspoon golden syrup
2 Tablespoons Maizena
Food colouring- as many colours as you like. 😉
Muffin tin
Mixing bowl
Mixing spoon
Cut straws to mix paint
In a mixing bowl, mix the bicarb and vinegar. Watch how it fizzes- what fun!
Once it has stopped fizzing, add in the golden syrup (always a good idea to dip your spoon into boiling water before putting the syrup on, so it comes off easily)
Mix in the maizena. Mix it together. It is sort of hard and lumpy- it does not look like paint at all. Mix with your hands to make sure everything is mixed properly!!
This step is great for a tactile experience! Spoon into the muffin time. The muffin tin must be about 1/3 full.
Add the food colouring- you need about 10 drops, so go slowly. We mixed it in with a straw, which was easy and we could throw the straw away after. The effect is really amazing- when you add the colouring (the liquid with the maizena mix is always a winner- and this forms the most incredible liquid).
Leave to set over night! I really enjoy making things that have a delayed gratification component in it!
You know when it is set, when it is completely dry to the touch, and you can actually pop the paint palette out of the muffin tin!
If it is not set -no problem! Just leave them for longer!
When we were ready to paint, we decided to experiment a bit with the paint. We added water to some, and others we just used a wet paint brush. If you add water to the paint, just add a small amount very slowly, otherwise it will become too watery and unusable for that session.
Then, all that is left to do is to do your painting!
Experiment with using more and less water both on your brush and in the muffin tin with the paint mix.
The best part? You can just leave your water paint, and the water dries up, ready for next time! (You will notice our colours have changed due to all the mixing.
Angela Morony
Clamber Club – Craighall Babies
083 501 1187
craighallbabies@clamberclub.com
www.clamberclub.com