Homemade Watercolors for Kids

    

With the Christmas holidays upon us, everyone’s looking for activities to keep the children occupied while ‘Santa’ does all his work. Painting is an activity sure to keep the kids busy for hours, but what if you have no suitable paint in the house and enough shopping to do without adding this to the list? Luckily, there’s a quick and easy way to make watercolor paints using products already in the kitchen. Here’s it is…

Ingredients:

• -          Vinegar
• -          Baking soda
• -          Cornflour
• -          Golden syrup
• -          Food coloring

Equipment:

• -          Ice-cube tray
• -          Bowl
• -          Tablespoon

Method:

The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily increase or decrease quantities depending on how much paint you want, as it’s all down to ratios. You’ll need equal parts white vinegar and cornflour, twice the amount of baking soda and one quarter the amount of golden syrup. Mix the baking soda and vinegar together – they’ll fizz, but this is completely normal. Just wait for the fizzing to stop, then mix in the golden syrup and cornflour. Pour equal parts of the mixture into each section of the ice-cube tray then add the food coloring, using more for dark colors, and less for lighter colors.

Now, just sit back and wait for your watercolors to dry. This could take up to 2 days, but if you leave them somewhere warm 24 hours is generally enough. Then hey presto! Free paints as good as any you can buy in the shops.

Idea for Watercolor Projects

Now you’ve got the paints to hand it’s time to try out some messy play ideas! Try recreating a Jackson Pollock masterpiece by flicking paint onto a large sheet of white paper. Or use your paints to give drawings exciting new hair styles. Just draw a person without any hair then dab some paint over the hairline and blow. You’ll create wild, crazy styles and if you use a range of colors – a multicolored hairstyle too!

Another fun idea is to snip rubber bands and stretch them over the open side of a cardboard box. Tie at each end, then place paper at the bottom and drip paint on the rubber strings. Now get plucking. Not only will you make musical sounds, but the paint will also create marvellous patterns on the paper below.

So what are you waiting for? Get painting!