Salt and Flour Paint

After experimenting with our new squeeze bottles and using an inordinate amount of paint in the process, I made up a batch of salt and flour paint for more economical squeeze painting. The recipe is simple, non-toxic, and it costs next to nothing to make. Not to mention it’s pretty rewarding to make your own art materials. I made these while my daughter was napping, but next time I’ll include her in the process. The following recipe makes enough paint to fill 3 Nancy Bottles.

Blend 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of salt. Add 1/2 cup of water…

and mix until smooth.

Divide it up into three sandwich bags and add a few drops of liquid watercolor or food coloring to each bag.

Squish them up until the “paint” is well blended. Use Ziplock bags if small children are helping with this step. Add more water if you’d like a thinner paint. Cut a corner off the baggie and squeeze the paint mixture into your squeeze bottle.

The paint came out pretty thick, and was a little hard to squeeze. Next time we’ll dilute it with a bit more water. The good news is that the paint dries quickly. The squeeze paintings we made with regular tempera paint (2 days ago) are still wet, while these are already completely dry! And they have a nice puffy, sparkly texture too!

What’s your favorite kind of paint and/or painting process?