Quick and Easy DIY Watercolor Paint Recipe for Toddlers

Need any easy DIY to entertain your toddler? This DIY watercolor paint recipe is quick, easy, and inexpensive- my favorite combination for entertaining kids!

How to make your own watercolor paints

There are a lot of different ways to make watercolor paints.

However, there aren’t a lot of different easy variations! This one from Martha Stewart requires you to let the paint set overnight. No thanks.

Then again, if you are looking for a real set of watercolor paints, follow Martha’s advice!

Why you should make kid friendly watercolors for toddlers

A standard set of Crayola watercolors are about $4.

While that price won’t break most people’s budget, why buy it when you can easily make it at home?

Another reason to make it at home is that you can control how much food coloring you use. I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly want my toddler painting with super vibrant colors. Muted works just fine for me.

RELATED POST: How to Entertain Kids by Letting them get Bored

Some DIY watercolor recipes are pretty intense

Have you seen the search engine results for DIY watercolor paint?

Some of these moms have way too much free time on their hands.  While I’d love to whip up watercolors using 8 household ingredients, I don’t have the time or patience to do all that for a kid who might not even like painting.

Another issue I found was that many of the recipes made a TON of paint.  This recipe makes a small amount so you can whip it up just for fun.

After searching on Pinterest and Google for what felt like an eternity during nap time (while I should have been doing laundry or something productive), I finally gave up and started experimenting on my own.

I came up with a recipe that makes one cup and perfectly fills one ice tray.  Not only is the DIY watercolor paint recipe the perfect size for one time use, it is super easy to make and clean up.   I also love this because the paint is wet instead of dry disks.  Perfect for small toddlers who can’t understand the concept of wetting a brush before dipping into disks of dry paint.

Quick and Easy DIY Watercolor Paint Recipe for Toddlers

• 3/4 C. water
• 1/4 C. light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. corn starch
• food coloring

Mix the water, corn syrup and corn starch together in a mixing bowl.

Pour into ice tray and add food coloring to your liking.

I did the traditional ROYGBIV. I only used one drop for each primary color, 1 each of R and Y to make orange, 1 each of B and R to make violet and then 2 of blue and 1 of red to make indigo.

Don’t want to make your own?

Check out these alternative options to buy instead:

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