Puffy Paintings

Yesterday, my kids and I had a great time making these puffy paintings. I gave each child (and myself!) a piece of finger painting paper, though any heavy paper will do. Then I whipped up a batch of homemade puffy paint (recipe to follow). We used Q-Tips to drip the paint onto the paper . Then, we just popped the paintings into the microwave, remembering to turn off the turntable, and cooked them for 30 to 45 seconds. The paint puffed up and dried, leaving us with beautiful, abstract, three-dimensional paintings, perfect for hanging on the playroom door. My kids spent a lot of time yesterday feeling the puffy paint and exclaiming over the bright colors and rough texture of the paintings. I had a lot of fun with this one too! ;)

Here's the recipe: Mix 4 tablespoons self rising flour with 4 tablespoons salt. Add water until a thin paste is formed. Separate the paste into sections (we used a muffin tin for this) and then add food coloring to make different colors of paint. I added a Q-Tip to each compartment so that the colors didn't get messed up when the switched colors. This recipe made more than enough paint for my two kids, and since I didn't know whether it would keep for a few days I ended up dumping the leftovers. Next time, I'm going to try to half the recipe and hopefully then I won't end up wasting so much paint. Also, we didn't have any self rising flour, so I took a chance and used regular flour. It did puff up, but not nearly as much as it would have with the self rising variety. It was still worth the time and effort though, so if you don't have the right kind of flour on hand, do try the regular flour!