I'm back with a Make a Mess Monday post! This time, Lorelei and I painted the town red -- and blue, and green, and purple...
I was able to whip up the paint pretty easily during her naptime. To make it, I combined 3 cups of water, 1 cup of cornstarch, 5 Tbsp of sugar, and a tsp of salt in a saucepan and stirred (and stirred and stirred and stirred!) over low heat until it got really thick and paint-like. (I actually intended to follow this recipe, but then wasn't paying any attention and dumped in 3 cups of water so had to modify. Maybe it would have gone faster the original way -- it took quite a while for it to thicken.) Then I put a few drops of food coloring into each cup of a 6-cup jumbo muffin tin, added the paint base, and voila!
I wish we had a giant roll of butcher paper, but newspaper taped to the bricks on our patio ended up working pretty well. Next time, I'll tape even more down -- Lorelei wanted to have lots of room to spread out, and I ended up with a few baby footprints that I had to hose down later (it came off really easily, in case you were wondering). I gave her some sponge paintbrushes to try, and she seemed to love dipping them in the paint and then touching them to the paper.
I know from the pictures it looks like she ate more than she painted, but she really only put the brushes near her mouth a few times -- and since the ingredients are safe, I didn't worry too much about it (though of course redirected so she doesn't get in the habit!).
Not bad for a lazy afternoon activity. [p.s. did you see Margaux's post about her own cornstarch + baby fun recently?]
Oh boy! Looks fun. We'll have to try while it's still warm enough to play outside. I like your idea with taping down the newspaper. Maybe I'll slip in a few pieces of paper so he can make "art" to give to his Grandma's :) They would love that.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for linking back. I hope you get to try our science experiment with L too.
Holy cow, these pictures are SO CUTE! Look how big she's getting! SO FUN!
ReplyDeleteAnything that makes a mess is a win in my book! Kids LOVE to make messes because it stimulates so much learning. Finger painting is one of our favorites.
ReplyDeleteI started doing play doh with Jonas at about that age - it's really really easy to make, too.
These are the cutest pictures ever!! What a mess, but so much fun!
ReplyDelete♥ Kyna
Adorable, as always! I have to say I actually think her "self-decoration" is quite artistic-looking! Definitely tagging that recipe (and this post!) for future fun.
ReplyDeleteThat recipe sounds great, and those photos of Lorelei covered in paint are even better!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea, and a simple recipe. I know Annabelle would love it. Adding it to our list! I adore that last photo of Lorelei, by the way.
ReplyDeletei'm going to try this tomorrow. wish me luck! and thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDelete