How To Make Paint
11 September 2006
76 Comments
If you’ve been caught without any paint (tut tut!) for the latest art project, then here is an easy recipe.
You will need;
Water
Flour
Food Colouring
Bowl
Spoon
1. Mix small amount of flour and water, mix until you have a smooth paste.
2. Continue to add water until you have the right consistency. For example for finger painting you will need a thicker paint than standard paintbrush painting.
*Tip* If you don’t have any paintbrushes you could do what my nan used to do (my mum did it for us once!), cut an inch or so of hair (yes, that’s your hair) and tape to a twig! This would be a great little tip if the end result wasn’t so shoddy…. 
(sorry mum, nan…)
Hi,
I liked the idea of making our own finger paint. I am always looking for new ideas for my three year old classroom.
I do not think we will try the real hair paint brush making.
Great Tip!!!Thanks a million!We are planning a haunted house on a budget and have been doing lots of paper heads ect…which all need alot of painting to make them stand out.This is just perfect.Works great too!Thank you again!
Thanks for the feedback guys, I’m up for anything that saves money!
can you make me an introduction of how to make paint from chalk dust!!!Please we need it on our IP answer it now!!
Thank you so much. I teach 4-7 year olds in sunday school. It can sometimes get expensive to give them something fun and creative every week. But this, my friend, will do the trick. It is a wonderful idea and very easy to make.
Thanks! I needed paint for a small project I was doing for shcool and now I don’t have to go out to the store and this saves me a lot of money!!!! Thanks again!
Your welcome Cassie, hope it works well.
[...] painting is great fun, make your own paint, it’s safe if they decide to put their fingers in their mouths. Photo by flickr user [...]
Do you think this would work for painting hair? (small designes with a stencil). Hoping it will last a day and wash out easily. I may experiment on my own. But if someone already has tried it, I’d like to know.
Hi Elsa,
I haven’t tried it, but I’m not sure the paint’s colour would be strong enough, I also don’t know if it would be safe to use on hair – is it human hair?
Thjis works well! Its so cool! I would love to do this again sometime. Thanks for showing me the steps on making it! My class will love making turkeys for thanksgiving!
:O :L)
thanks that should be a million dollar tip
thanks
Thanks for asking…yes, it is human hair. I wanted to use it for vbs(vacation bible school) last summer. I still would like to find something safe and colorful and the right consistency to use for my kids HAIR for next summer. It should last 1-3 days and of course be homemade. If anyone has a recipe they’ve tried, please post. THanks!!
Elsa
When do you add the food dye and dose the paste have to be real runny.
sorry about the last comment
Hi Kate,
Add a small amount of food colouring at the end, add more if required. The paste should be thicker for finger painting – like custard, or thinner for paintbrush painting – like cream.
Hope that helps
When made this I was so surprised that is really id work
Hey fanks for the recipe hope it works!!!!
what do you need a spoon for?
The spoon is to stir the paint into the correct consisitency.
hello i like your best ideas it is the best website
[...] my post on ‘How to make paint‘, I thought i’d give you a few ideas that you may not have thought of – to do with [...]
need more on how to get the color of the paint
need more info on how to make paint
I Was Experimenting Upstairs Before I Came Down To Clean And One Of The Things I Did Was Make Paint….When I Came Down, I Got ON The COmputer Went To The Search Engine And Typed In How Do You Make Paint? and This Website Showed Up. Its The Same Recipe That I Used Like 10 Minutes Ago……….Sierra
I’m going to try it soon[when i get the chance] for my sci. project!Can I paint my cars with it??
Love Jackie
Wow!I really worked!My sci. Project is awsome!
LOVE Jackie!
P.S.Still wating for answer about the cars.
gooood idea mate:)))
it is so cool try it with a friend and you can mack it with spackesls
thanks for the tip!
im always looking for new ways to make art fun for me and my kids!
Great and super easy recipe! My 4-year-old is happily painting away, and it took me 2 minutes to mix up!
this looks great,though im not sure i will use the hair bit.thanks
thanks i needed to use it to make cave art.my teacher said to make it colorful and with your help,i can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
i never tried it yet but i hope its going to work! and even if i does’t i will be fun to make!
This is such a great tip!!!!!!! instead of buying like $10 dollars worth of paint in a little bitty jug,I can make a whole milk gallon for at least like $3.
hi! i was bored on the internet, just surfing the web…and i found this..
this is gonna sound so gross…but….
it makes good blood to!! you know for a halloween surprise…the trick though is to add a ton of red food coloring to your mix, and if you want, a ton of dark corn syrup…its going to smell funny but gives you the creepiest rusty red color ever!!
thanks for the recipe!! i love it, and im sure all the kids this halloween will too!
Great tip! Halloween’s just around the corner now…
Nice…Tnx for the tips and recipes…I’ll gonna try it on our I.P…I hope it’ll work…
that was a good job
that was nice how you told us about the paint and i am going to try that to day right now
me and my dad love to make paint when he and i are free
OMG thank you!!. i was looking 4 somethin 2 do!! i was sooooooooooo bored til i found this. i hope it works but i think it will because you sound really nick. also do you know a recipe on how to make clay?? so please do tell if you know how to make actual clay
Hi Lexii, not sure how to make actual clay, but this is fun –
http://www.littlemummy.com/2007/03/05/activity-7-gunge-or-dough-oryou-decide/
wow thanks! im just a lil girl but this really helped! now my brothers wont go in da paint that i have, ill just make my own for them or make this for myself! woot! thanks
im going to try thx
Thank you so much for the recipe. I’ve been into arts and crafts lately. I have been looking for tons of stuff to make. My question is: Do you know any good websites I could go to to get other recipes for really anything and to find other crafts and stuff to make?
Please send me a comment or e-mail if you do! *!THANKS!*
Hi C.J.
I like the BBC website, also you find lots of good ideas at homeschooling sites too, just search in google for them.
AHH gr8 job gurl!! this works great and my class loves it! they all had fun making the paint too! I m like gonnnnnnna use ur paint 4ever!!!!
-thnx
hi littlemummy im nine years old and love to do these type of thing and please email me if u have any ideas or comment please u truley are COOL! so keep ur smartnes goin rock on littlemummmy!
or please e mail me bcuz i check it everyday i will email u bak so pleaseeeeeeeee
i hope ur there!
alrighty lilmummy nice meeting u ………….. i guess………….goodbye
Hi! We tried 2 make this paint recipe but it did not work out so well… we used some flour and then some water and food dye and mixed it up. We then used paint brushes and brushed it on a poster board! It soaked in and it dried really weird. It ended up as a big gooky mess. It also looked like a weird wet thing. It did not work out for us and now we have 2 turn this in but we are using the other side for our info!
great tip but when i made it it wasnt really looking like paint on paper i looke like mini go yogurt i will try again thansk ur the best,
miss tickles
heyy,
thanks for the paint recipe
without that recipe i would have got a D for my assessment
but thanks to you i saved to you
saved my assesment paint work
Thankk Youu Sooo Muchh!!!
this is awesome when and how did you learn to make paint i’m always trying to make things that use paint usually when we do not have any thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
is this washable??
my cuzins wanted to know if they could paint with this recipie on their trampoline.
anyways this works great on paper…i was just wonsering if they could paint on the trampoline with this. i told them not to try it incase it wouldnt come off that kind of fabric.
Thanks for your help!!!
It is washable but I wouldn’t advise painting the trampoline.
Thanks a lot! I’ve been trying to find an easy paint recipe. In fact, my daughter is using the homemade paint now. I also love the paintbrush idea.
Thanks muslim mommy, glad it’s come in handy.
Will it ever work because i haven’t tried it, but i don’t want it to end up in a big, gloppy, gross mess. I’m not trying to be mean, but i don’t want it to be ugly for now. k? thanks so much for maybe answering my question.Well i hope you respond to my question because i really want to try it, but i don’t want it to be ugly because who would want to paint with something UGLY!!! sincerely,The Person Writing This? (um-duh) Bye… Paint Person
sorry about what i said because i just don’t want it to be ugly.k? bye again paint person! orange! hi.?
The only way you’ll know is by giving it a try
will this work on clay? I,m just wondering because i make clay dragons and i don’t want them to fall apart if it doesn’t work.
thanks if You do answer,
bye!
Hi Abby,
Honest answer is I don’t know, but I think you’re better using acrylic paint for clay, this probably wouldn’t show up.
hi little mummy i want to no what step 3 is??
Hai,
ummm…. can you use cornflour, mums out of normal flour
Cornflour would probably be too thick but I’ve never tried it so give it a go!
Hi I am working on a big youth project for an d\out door festival and am looking for an easy paint recipe to use. we will be painting huge banners.. do you think this will work and will store well,as it will be a continuous project and the banners will be rolled up and worked on repeatedly, does the paint store well or will it need to be remixed as used? thank you in advance for any help you could give me.
Hi Crystal,
Not sure if this would be suitable for large banners, I would probably use acrylic.
Erica
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Hey, we used this for a school project and it worked great
we got to use it with little kids … and they loved it!
thank u..
u saved my life from being bored.
and, its simple..
u
are
the
best
!
Hi
Me and my BFF are gonna try make this Hopefully it will work
Bye
Wish us luck
Hope this works!! Gonna try it!!:)
It’s for science!!
thanks so much i’m really into pottery and i made this new style where the paint shows up best if you paint it begore it cools and i couldnt find any paint so your recipe really helps ………will this paint chip or wash off?