This was one of our projects from our Kid’s Science Experiment and Art Project Kit. Mostly this was more of a “something to do” kind of project. Watercolors aren’t terribly expensive, but this was a fun project to do with Little Monkey. While the colors weren’t quite as bright and vibrant as the store-bought paints, it still worked quite well and, when the paint dried, the colors stayed true.
Materials:
– 3 Tbsp baking soda
– 3 Tbsp cornstarch
– 3 Tbsp white vinegar
– 1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup (or simply boil one cup sugar and 1/2 cup water until clear)
– food coloring
– containers to hold your paints
Directions:
Combine 3 tablespoons each of the baking soda, cornstarch and vinegar and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the corn syrup/sugar substitute. Allow the fizzing to subside and mix completely. Pour the mixture into whatever you’d like to use to hold your paints. A foam egg carton works really well (cardboard ones work okay, but absorb a lot of the liquid). Add the food coloring to create your desired palette and leave out to harden for at least three hours. Make sure you add the food coloring relatively quickly; the mixture actually starts to solidify almost right away.
Make your colors A LOT darker than you think you will need. Our color seemed to rise to the top of the paints and the middles weren’t as dark in color.
I used a long bracelet-style jewelry box and an egg carton for my paints. I cut the bottoms of the egg carton slots off and then glued them into the jewelry box. This made a nice container that our paint brush also fit inside nicely.
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