Siya loves to get messy and creative with her art, which kid does not? This week we continued with the theme from last couple of weeks; to utilize mother nature in our Sunday-Funday activities. We wanted to create art pieces using paint and different natural things such as potatoes, star shaped carrots, leaves and handprints. As a result, we started looking for non-toxic and all natural paints.
However, Little did W3 knew that the so called “non-toxic” art and craft supplies were pretty much a hoax especially for kids under 6 years old as these products do have alcohol, pigments, etc that can in large quantities if consumed or applied can be poisonous. The article by PediatricSafety.net states that over 70% of the calls that poison control receives is for kids younger than 6 that have used art and craft supplies labeled as “non-toxic.”
This was definitely frustrating because we want to provide a creative and developmentally stimulating artistic environment for Siya that is “non-toxic.” Growing up, we always used powdered herbs to paint pictures and make different artistic designs during festivals.; So I took this as an inspiration and started doing causal searching on how to make non-toxic all natural paint at home.
My “make at home paint” recipe below is inspired from my roots, easy to make at home and something that can last long.
Make @ Home Paint Recipe
Ingredients Needed
- 4 air tight containers to store the colors
- 1/4 cup of each of the Herbs – You can buy these from any local herb stores or from Amazon, Mountain Rose Herbs or Herbs Affair
- Yellow paint – Tumeric and Pumpkin powder
- Green paint – Spirulina and Spinach powder
- Red paint – Beetroot and hibiscus flower powder
- Purple paint – Blueberry and Acai berry powder
- 1/4 cup Rice flour and 1/4 cup arrowroot powder for each paint- This is used as the thickener and it does not change the color of herb powders.
Mix & Storage
Take a large mixing bowl and start with one paint at a time. To make the “yellow paint,” mix 1/4 cup each of rice flour, arrowroot powder, turmeric and pumpkin powder. Mix it well and transfer it into airtight container. Vo La!! yellow paint is made 🙂 it is truly this simple.
Now, similarly mix the other paint colors and put them in air tight containers. These paints will last you for a very long time.
If you don’t have time to make paint at home here is an alternative: Glob All Natural Paint Kits.
Create master pieces with no worries
We took small quantities of the above paint powder and started adding spoonful of water at a time till we reached the consistency we wanted (if it became too runny we added a little more powder).
Now we were all set to get creative, and we experimented with different mediums such as leaves, potatoes, okra, but most importantly we used safe, healthy, homemade, non-toxic paints. We really enjoyed our Sunday as a family and had a great time not only creating some master pieces that will be treasured forever but also learnt a creative way to use herbs.
To make this activity more interesting you can get your kids involved in making the paint, mixing different colors, learning more about the herbs and its uses. The scope of this activity is endless, try it with you kids today!!
Do you make paint supplies for your kids? What all do you do? What all do you do to create a natural and creative environment for your kids?
Little Did W3 Knew 