Tuesday 2 September 2014

Painting with Baby



I've been wanting to try painting with my little boy for a while now and decided that today was the day. Father's Day is approaching and I want a cute painting to give my husband from his boy.

I researched some baby safe (edible) paint recipes and whipped up some paint at the end of his nap, ready for playtime. This is the basic recipe:

- 1/3 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 10 drops food colouring

Simply mix the flour and water together in a bowl with a whisk. Add more water until you reach whatever consistency you desire. (The recipe is merely a guide). Once the mixture is smooth, add the oil for a nice shiny paint or leave it out if you want!
Divide out the mix into several different cups and add a different food colouring to each one. I found that you need to add quite a lot of food dye to make a strong coloured paint. I used yellow, red and blue.
Once the paint is coloured, just pour a few drops onto a piece of paper and let baby become the artist!


The texture is perfect for finger painting and dries quickly in the sun. I masking taped the paper to his high chair tray to stop him from scrunching it up. The paint cleans off of clothes easily enough and isn't tasty enough to encourage much finger licking. As this was our first painting experience, I did need to show baby how to begin. Once he got the hang of playing in the paint he made some lovely pictures. Perfect for Father's day!