Homemade Puffy Paint (Hands-on Play)

 Welcome to the Hands-on Play Party! We made this homemade puffy paint with just 3 ingredients (super easy!). You can check out the linky at the end and also (wait for it) a special giveaway! Yay! Okay, interruption over...

   Kay has been getting more interested in putting together recipes. We made playdough awhile back and she really enjoyed measuring each ingredient and mixing it in. So I thought we'd make this recipe I found for puffy paint. The recipe called for equal parts salt, flour and water. I tried to make a little before she woke up, to make sure it would come together, and it did. But by the time we were ready to do it together, I'd decided to skip over the salt altogether (we didn't have much). So it was just flour, water and tempera paint.

  Then we put it in squeeze bottles. I had a new tarp on the floor and cardboard (from a cereal box) to paint on already set out. (It always gets messy when paints are involved in this house.) She immediately asked if she could squirt paint on her legs...then her belly button. 

  Soon it was full-body painting! (So glad for that tarp!) 
  
  She squirted, then poured, the paint onto the cardboard and slid around on it. It was a chaotic mess. And she was laughing the whole time. (Somehow the sound of her laughter makes any mess easier to deal with...I'm pretty sure that's part of her master plan!)

Needless to say, there was a shower involved afterwards and much washing down of various splatters. But it was easy to clean up. The tarp I just took outside and rinsed it with the hose. (Did I mention how thankful I am for that tarp?!) So, another process art at the Craig house. 

  If you're thinking of trying it, the paint does dry quickly and was puffy, even without the salt. We added a bit extra water so that it would come easily through the squirt bottles and it worked out really well. 

  And just to reassure the mess-phobic out there: this need not be such a messy project! Kay just really gets into the sensory aspect of painting!

   This week's Hands-on Play Party has a special giveaway to go along with it. If you have a post, add it to the linky below. Then enter the giveaway be sure to check out these hands-on play ideas from the co-hosts. (Got all that?!)

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