Make Your Own Watercolor Paints
Make a frugal homemade set of watercolor paints with this simple recipe that uses ordinary ingredients. You can make an assortment of colors of your choice using food coloring.
Equipment:
- 12-cup mini muffin pan (or other mold with small compartments)
- Toothpicks (or other very small stirring utensil)
- Measuring cup with pouring spout edge (or other spouted container)
Materials:
- 4 tablespoons baking soda
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- liquid food coloring
Instructions:
- Measure the baking soda into a measuring cup.
- Add the vinegar and let it fizz. Let it almost completely finish fizzing before stirring it into the baking soda.
- Add the corn syrup and the corn starch and stir to mix well. The mixture should now be about the consistency of Elmers glue.
- Pour some of the mixture into each compartment of your muffin pan, filling each compartment about a 1/4 to 1/2 full.
- Next you will add a few drops of food coloring to each compartment. One drop to three drops will probably be enough. Use a toothpick to stir the food coloring until the color is evenly distributed. Some color amount ideas are in the photo below.
- Now you will need to let your new watercolor set thoroughly dry and harden up. This will take 36 to 48 hours.
- To use: Dip a small brush in water and swirl it around on one of the sections to get the color on your brush. Dip your brush in water to rinse when you want to change colors.
Notes:
To make lighter colors, you can try just dropping some food coloring onto the toothpick and then stirring it into the compartment.
I use liquid food coloring for this project, but it's possible that the gel coloring could also work.