Here’s a good paint recipe for those of you who have children that might be tempted to taste the paint while they are working on an art project. I got the idea from the book First Art by Maryann Kohl and adjusted the recipe to my liking. I have a container of powdered milk that is nearing expiration (I occasionally use it for homemade bread) and I thought this would be a great way to use it up. Here is the recipe:
Powdered Milk Paint
- 1/2 cup powdered milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup (or more) corn starch
- Food Coloring (or tempera paint if you prefer and aren’t concerned about your child eating the paint)
Snootz helped mix all the ingredients together and we used a large squirt of tempera paint, rather than food coloring, for each batch we made (no paint-eaters here, at least not anymore). All three children love to paint so this was a good art project for them. I am planning to provide a lot of opportunities for them to have open-ended art experiences this year.
They used sponge brushes to paint with the milk paint and that worked really well. This was also a good lesson in color mixing because they used red (it turned out more pink) and blue paint and mixed the colors on their papers to make purple.
Two days later the paintings do not smell but I wonder if they would begin to smell sour over time. I recommend using a different type of paint if you are hoping to display your child’s painting or hold onto it for a keepsake. I plan to throw ours away by the end of the week even though they turned out beautifully. That’s okay though because it gives us more reason to keep painting!
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