The best homemade art materials for kids art, including paint recipes, playdough, & drawing materials. Make your own art supplies for fun, economy, and more!
Updated April 2025
If you want to make art with the kids, how about whipping up some homemade art materials first?
We truly believe that oftentimes the best supplies are those we make ourselves. Why? Because they are fun to make, economical, and you know exactly what’s going into them.
It might feel intimidating to make your own art materials, but it can actually be easy and fun. And your kids will love making them as much as using them! Here is our list of our favorite homemade art materials. All are family tested and approved.
Homemade Art Materials for Kids
Bathtub Paint
A bathtub paint homemade recipe for kids that is quick and easy to make! And you likely already have the ingredients at home.
Homemade Watercolor Paints
How to make paints for kids using simple, inexpensive kitchen ingredients. Make the paints with your children and then paint together!
Chalk Paint
Here’s our quick and easy recipe for how to make chalk paint. Make a batch and use it for a fun outdoor art activity for kids.
Try DIY Scratch Art
DIY scratch art is easier to make than you might think. Kids can make this beautiful scratch art paper with oil pastels, black paint, and toothpicks.
Make Your Own Shaped Crayons
It’s easy to make your own shaped crayons by melting crayon stubs into fun shapes. Plus, they make great gifts and party favors!
Salt Puffy Paint that dries hard and sparkly
Here’s how to make and use DIY salt puffy paint with kids. This is a favorite process art material and it’s fun for children of all ages!
DIY Puffy Paint
Learn how to make puffy paint for kids that is actually puffy! This recipe is super easy to make and so much fun to create with.
Microwave Puffy Paint
This microwave puffy paint recipe combines art and science for kids. Made of 3 simple ingredients, this paint puffs up in the microwave.
Our Favorite Cooked Playdough Recipe
This recipe for playdough is guaranteed to make a huge batch of homemade playdough perfect for hours of imaginative play!
The Best No-Cook Playdough Recipe
Here’s how to make playdough for kids with the BEST recipe for no cook playdough using the hot water method.
Edible Playdough Recipe
Here’s how to make an edible playdough recipe for kids using peanut butter plus creative playdough ideas for kids.
Homemade Salt Dough
Learn how to make salt dough with this easy recipe. Salt dough is great for all kinds of crafts, including ornaments and pendants.
Make Your Own Air-Dry Clay
Learn how to make homemade air-dry clay with just 4 inexpensive ingredients! This easy recipe is perfect for all kinds of crafting fun.
Homemade Fluffy Slime
This fluffy slime recipe is easy to make at home! Here are the recipe and step-by-step instructions for how to make fluffy slime yourself.
Homemade Glitter Slime
Learn how to make glitter slime for kids! This sensory material is easy to make and lots of fun to play with!
The Best Butter Slime Recipe
Want to learn how to make slime without borax? Here’s our best butter slime recipe and video for a super soft and stretchy material.
How to Make Bubble Foam
Bubble foam is an easy and fun sensory material for kids. Use tear-free bubble bath and water to whip up this fluffy foam!
How to Make Cloud Clay for Kids
Cloud clay is a simple, fun, and sensory-rich material that can easily be made with just two ingredients: cornstarch and hair conditioner.
How to Make Cloud Dough for Kids
Learn how to make cloud dough with this 2 ingredient recipe. This is a sensory play material kids love!
How to Make Oobleck
Learn how to make oobleck with two ingredients. This oobleck recipe is easy to make and a super fun sensory play material for kids.
How to Make Aquafaba
Learn how to make aquafaba which is a fluffy, fun sensory play material for kids. This is a great taste safe option for babies and toddlers!
How to Make Homemade Bubbles
Last but not least, one of our favorite homemade art materials: bubbles! Learn how to make homemade bubbles, so your kids have a never-ending supply of bubble solution. This is the easiest and quickest DIY bubble recipe, and it doesn’t use glycerin.
How about you? Do you make your own art materials? What supplies do you prefer to make versus buy?
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