Ingredients (modify the quantities if needed to minimize waste) :
- 40gr sugar
- 8gr salt
- 60gr corn starch (maizena)
- 250ml water (finger paint); or 400ml for liquid paint.
- Preservatives:
- few drops of tea tree essential oil
- or few milliliters vinegar; but vinegar is acid and might change the color. So you can play with it!
- Colors:
- Hard: crush it before mixing it
- Fruits/vegetable: make a paste before mixing it
- Plants/onion skin: cook it in water to extract the color
- Powder (spices): mix it
Preparation (5 min for unstained paint; hours of pleasure and experimentation to test plenty of different dyes 😉):
Mix all ingredients together and stir very well.
For the dyes, just try what you have at home; it is even better if you use green waste after cooking. (You can start a collection of possible dye product in your freezer; so you can take them out when you decide to make some paint!).
I’ve collected those dye tip from a website called recyclenation:
- Brown: earth, coffee and black tea.
- Purple/Red/Pink: Berries (strawberries, cherries, huckleberries, blackberries, elderberries, black currants, red currants and raspberries), beets, roses, pomegranates, hibiscus, day lilies and basil leaves.
- Blue: Blueberries with some distilled vinegar, purple grapes, red cabbage and elderberries.
- Grey: Wood ash.
- Yellow: Onion skins, Turmeric, sunflower petals, bay leaves, dandelion flowers, marigolds and celery leaves.
- Green: Artichokes, spinach, peppermint leaves, lilacs or just plain grass.
- Orange: Chili powder, paprika and carrots.
CAVE!!! colors might change after drying!!
Eco With Kids 