Painting for kids

DIY Puffy Paint for Kids

March 7, 2022

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How to make DIY puffy paint for kids that is actually puffy! This recipe is easy to make and lots of fun! Updates by our Associate Editor, Andrea Martelle

Updated May 2022

We’ve made homemade puffy paint many times over the years.

Only, what we have called puffy paint is not actually puffy at all, either before or after it’s dry. It’s made from flour and salt and dries as hard as a rock. It’s raised, yes. And lots of fun to make and create with. But puffy might be the wrong word for it.

We’ve also tried the wonders of microwave puffy paint, which, lo and behold, is actually puffy. It puffs up before your eyes and stays puffy to the touch.

But it’s not always convenient to make, especially if you don’t have a microwave.

DIY puffy paint pin — Photo by Andrea Martelle

So, here’s a new DIY puffy paint recipe. One that is extra puffy and doesn’t require a microwave.

Here’s a video showing Puffy Paint in action! And don’t forget to scroll down for the recipe!

DIY Puffy Paint for Kids

MATERIALS

3+ cups of shaving cream (foam not gel)
1 cup flour
1 cup white glue
Food coloring or paint
Ziploc-style sandwich bags
Sturdy paper or board (poster board, tag board, cardboard, watercolor paper, or paper plates)

Instructions

Measure out your ingredients.
Add all the ingredients, except for any coloring, into a large mixing bowl.
Mix your ingredients.
Combine the shaving cream, flour and glue together without over mixing. (You want to keep the air bubbles in the shaving cream.)
Divide your mixture and add color.
Pour the white puffy paint mixture between 3 to 4 small bowls and add a few squirts of food coloring or paint to each bowl, stirring in, but again being careful not to over mix.

Note: If you want to keep all or some of the puffy paint white (for making clouds, snowmen, or for working on black poster board, for example), then you can skip this step.
Spoon the puffy paint into sandwich bags.
Seal each bag (add duct tape as well to help keep it closed if your kids are extra vigorous squeezers), then cut a small corner off.
Paint with your new puffy paint!
Squeeze the foam paint through the small hole onto your paper or board, making puffy lines, dots, and designs as desired.

Note: A squeeze bottle works, too, but it is easier to squeeze out and use all of the puffy paint when it is in a bag and there is no clean-up of squeeze bottles necessary.
Let your painting dry overnight.
You’ll notice the foam paint gets even puffier as it dries and sets.

And it is still puffy to the touch even after it dries!