This microwave puffy paint recipe is simple to make in holiday colors and enormously fun for kids! Whip up the paint from your kitchen cupboards, squeeze out pictures, then microwave.
Updated June 2023
Ever since we had so much fun doing microwave puffy paint a few months ago, the kids have been asking for a repeat performance.
So when we saw the puffy paint snowflakes on Inner Child Fun, we decided that now would be the perfect time.
We made puffy paint snowmen, snowflakes, blizzards, candy canes, and more. All kinds of wintry puffy paint art!
Plus, we figured out a little trick to make the puffy paint (even) easier to make and work better!
Holiday Puffy Paint Recipe
This recipe makes enough for 3-4 children.
MATERIALS
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Blender
- Red and green food coloring or liquid watercolors
- Black or blue poster board, cut into smallish pieces
- Squeeze bottles (or you can just use a plastic baggie with the tip cut off.)
- Microwave
INSTRUCTIONS
- Blend puffy paint
Add flour, salt, and water to your blender and blend until super smooth (Make sure there aren’t any puffy paint chunks to clog up the tip of the squeeze bottles and cause your kids heartache!)
- Add to squeeze bottles
Pour the white puffy paint directly from the blender into squeeze bottles, reserving about half of the plain puffy paint to color red and green.
- Dye your puffy paint
We found that the easiest way to do this is to keep half of it in the blender and pour half temporarily into a cup or bowl. Add red food coloring to the puffy paint in the blender, blend, then pour into squeeze bottles. Do a quick rinse of the blender, add the rest of the puffy paint mixture and the green food coloring. Blend then pour into squeeze bottles.
That’s a lot of explanation for a simple process! And you could, of course, do it any way you like. But we found that using the blender was much easier and produced a better, smoother puffy paint and was easier to pour (rather than using spoons to transfer it to the squeeze bottles as before).
Now that you have your puffy paint, you are ready to make some puffy paint art! - Make puffy paint art
Squeeze the puffy paint out onto the blue or black poster board as desired to make winter scenes, Christmas art, abstract designs, or words.
- Puff it up!
Then, cook on high for 30 seconds in the microwave and watch it puff up! The artworks with a lot of puffy paint may need to double that time.
Now it’s dry to the touch, so no more waiting around for hours or days for a painting to dry.
Note: You could do this with just white for the snow flakes and snow scenes and it would be even quicker and easier to set up. We liked having the additional colors, though, especially for adding details. Plus they make it look so festive!
These were so fun to make, and you can hang them up, or use them as cards to give with presents! Do you think you’ll try making holiday puffy paint art this year?
More Christmas Arts and Crafts for Kids
- How to Make a Christmas Tree Craft with Cardboard and Buttons
- 25 Homemade Christmas Ornaments the Whole Family Can Make
- 11 Christmas Crafts for Kids To Make This Holiday Season
Want even more creative ideas?
Check out our Holiday Creativity pack!
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