Homemade edible finger paint

My kids are 4.5 and 2.5 now. It has been a while since we painted with finger paints.. My toddler thinks she is going to kindergarten with her big sister..haha. Having said that after painting with this no- flour, homemade glossy finger paint I realized you are NEVER too old to use finger paint because the kids had a BLAST!

What did we do?

Once the cooking was done, they had a kick out of adding food colors to the mixture and make finger paints so to speak.

The finger paint feels like loose Jell-O.

Try to use finger paint paper because the paint is pretty thick!. We just used regular paper since I knew we were not going to save the art and it was simply an process art activity and a sensory activity

. Here is my toddler going full throttle with the finger paint.. The finger paint really feels so fun to touch.

And again no kid is ever too old to make hand prints!..

Seeing those beautiful hand prints made me feel a bit sorry that I can’t save the art work.

My preschooler got a thrill out of creating with her hands and fingers. She used her fingers to create details and add dimension to her art.

Great opportunity to show color mixing..She created her sky and picked up the yellow finger paint to draw the Sun and what did she have? A green sun and that totally psyched her.. Mom ” Blue sky and yellow sun makes a green sun” followed by her loud laughter.

Our fun, messy art activity table.

Now that’s a sign that the kiddos loved the art activity – empty paint cups.

How to make no flour, glossy, edible finger paint with a GREAT texture?

When cooking with cornstarch it is hard to avoid the lumps which completely ruins the finger paint fun. To avoid this I’m using the same method we use to make porridge.

Mix cornstarch with cold water until you get a runny liquid..Not goop, but really runny liquid. ( say 1/2 cup cornstarch and 3/4- 1 cup of water)

Boil 1.5 to 2 cups of water.

In the meantime mix 1 packet of unflavored gelatin to water until all the gelatin is all soaked and a bit wet.

Add the runny cornstarch liquid to boiling water ( other way around is also good) and keep stirring

This way you avoid the lump formation.

Keep stirring until the mixture boils and starts to become very clear.

Take if off the stove and add gelatin to make sure you get a fun finger paint texture.

Now time to split the mixture and add super, vibrant colors to it.

The paint will keep for a day or 2 in the fridge. Just loosen it up with warm water. Honestly it is better to use up the paint you make.

You can make the same paint without gelatin. If you do, know that the paint starts out a bit runny and gets thicker and comes to a finger paint consistency after a while of handling. To avoid doubts, I just added gelatin so that it is much easier to achieve the RIGHT texture.

We have explored with the cornstarch and gelatin mixture in the past and made pretend ice cream and a chilled, no cook play dough kids can make. Click on the words in bold to visit the posts.

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