What should we paint with today?

Yesterday was Quiche day - I love quiche day because our wonderful cook saves me the pie tins for our painting projects. It makes clean up a ton and a half easier.

Ahhhh paint.... what can I say, I love the stuff. You can never go wrong with putting paints in front of a kid. Finger paints, shiny paints, glitter paints (glitter... LOVE IT), poster paints, powder paints.... there are so many to use. Today I thought i'd share some super cool home additions to painting which can give your child a different experience every time they paint. All the ideas are completely kid friendly and budget friendly.


Mix the following products with regular tempera paints to get the desired effect...

Corn Syrup - Makes your paint super shiny. It is thicker and takes a bit longer to dry, but the final product has such a sheen to it you might think it's still wet. We recently did paper plate pumpkins with orange corn syrup paint. The final product looks great on the class wall. * use something disposable or something you can pop the cap back on for future use with this one, it is super sticky to clean up and WAY easier just to toss when your done *

Condensed Milk - Add some condensed milk to you paint to give it a satin finish

Shaving Cream - Add some paint to tint the shaving cream, when the cream dries it looks like foam on the paper. The colors are not very bold, but it's a cool look anyway.

Liquid Dish Soap - Face Paint ! -- obviously take care about kid's eyes, but adding a smidge of liquid soap to your paint makes it super easy to come off skin. This is great for toddlers too, it makes clean up easier.

Here are some super cool things to do with that paint....

Bubble paint with the liquid dish soap paint -- Put the paint in a pie tin (whoo hoo, Quiche day!) with an ample amount of water. Place a straw into the water and a piece of paper on top of the pie tin. Blow bubbles... the bubbles will pop on the paper and create a popped bubble effect. * Messy Warning * This project has the potential to get super messy in a classroom. I'd recommend small groups.

Marble Painting - On a cookie sheet place a piece of paper. Roll your marbles in some paint and put them on the paper. Allow the child to roll the marbles back and forth on the paper creating roads and paths.


Stuff to paint with -- hit up your kitchen drawers and find stuff to paint with. Egg beaters, basters, funnels - anything and everything makes a fun project!

As always don't be afraid to add stuff and give it a try. We've added glitter (I know, that's a shocker!), rice, corn, beans, corn starch, hand sanitizer.... just about everything to paint. Every new texture and mixture is a learning lesson. Not to mention the lesson they learn when the colors get combined.  I was once a frustrated teacher who only got her kids to make big grey blobs on the paper - until I discovered small paint brushes. They are much more apt to make detailed work when given the opportunity!