Quick and Easy DIY Watercolor Paint Recipe for Toddlers

It’s been a long time since I shared a budget friendly toddler craft.  I guess pregnancy is making me think more about my own crafting bucket list instead of focusing on Robert!  I finally got around to doing another fun craft with him by having a fun filled afternoon of watercolor painting.  Check out his waterproof smock from Toppy Toddler.  I love that thing!  I’m also biased since Robert is the baby model for the bibs.  Seriously, though, this bib is awesome because it works well for crafts too.

You all know that I don’t like to do impulse buys.  That is the #1 way we save money in this house.  Each and every one of my purchases is very well thought out, even my pregnancy craving purchases.  I hate to admit that I almost broke my no impulse buy streak today to purchase watercolors.  The Crayola pack was only $4 at Target.   I blame social media peer pressure for this incident.  I recently saw a kid on Facebook, who is the same age as Robert, painting with a cute set of watercolors.  When I saw the pic, I knew I wanted to try it with my little man even though he seems to have zero interest in coloring or painting.  I set the watercolor set in my cart and quickly put it back determined to find an easy DIY watercolor recipe.

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.  If I find out that Robert loves paint, I’ll make a huge batch and keep them in squirt bottles, but until then I just needed to find something to test it out with him.

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.  I don’t think Robert can handle dipping the brush into the water cup yet.

Quick and Easy DIY Watercolor Paint Recipe for Toddlers

3/4 C. water

1/4 C. light corn syrup

1 tsp. corn starch

Mix it together (I actually mixed mine in the measuring cup to make clean up easier), pour into ice tray and add food coloring.  I did the traditional ROYGBIV because my brain can’t handle too much creativity.  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.  Thanks, Google search, for teaching me the difference between indigo and violet.

I call this a recipe for toddlers because the colors are not crazy vibrant, nor did I want them too vibrant for fear that they would stain everything in our house.  This is the perfect amount to get your toddler used to painting.

While searching for the perfect DIY watercolor recipe, I found two awesome ones that I will try if Robert ever shows an interest in painting.  These are both great recipes, but a little more time intensive.  I’m sure it is worth the time if you have a kid who loves to paint.

DesignSponge has a very similar recipe to mine, but with more ingredients.  While it looks simple, I still wasn’t ready to get out more ingredients than I needed.

I’m absolutely in love with this recipe by AllParenting.  This makes the traditional disks that can dry and be stored for later use.  I’m definitely going to try this one once Robert can manage a water cup.  I think it would make a fun homemade gift too!

What is your favorite budget friendly kid craft? Or adult craft!? I like those too.