Homemade Water Color Paints

Collette has been talking about painting a lot lately, and pretending to paint a lot, so I decided it was time for her to be able to paint.  I remember the "paint with water" coloring books from when I was a kid, and I've looked for those in several stores, but haven't found any.  So I found a way to make homemade water color paints and your own paint with water sheets, and decided to try that.  HERE is the link to that site.

So I started with the basic ingredients:

White vinegar, corn syrup, corn starch, baking soda, and food coloring. I used an egg crate for my color "pots" and put a few drops of dye in each one. 

The site suggested 10 drops, but because I was doing more colors in smaller amounts, I didn't need that many.  Also, I didn't have liquid food coloring for all of the colors; I had gel food coloring for some, and they didn't work quite as well. Also, I had no red left-- I think because I used it all in my Llama Llama Red Pajama cake and never replaced it. :)

These are the colors I ended up with:

While the paints were still wet, I got a few coloring sheets

and put dots of color on them, so that when Collette "painted" with her water the colors would bleed and fill that area.

Then we had to wait for the sheets and for the paints to dry.  The site suggested letting the paints dry for 24 hours, but ours took at least 2 days.

This afternoon Collette got to try them out!

The verdict: I wasn't in love with the paint with water sheets.  The thicker dots of paint I put on tended to peel off once they dried, and the thinner dots didn't really  have enough paint to color the area when Collette tried to paint.  Maybe I didn't do it quite right? Collette still had fun with the water and brush, though.  Until she dumped the water on her paper on purpose.

The water color paints, however, worked great!

The happy artist with her masterpiece: