With all the painting Amelia does, the cost of buying watercolors really adds up. My sister Lydia sent me a link to a blog with a recipe for homemade watercolors. I made a batch yesterday. They have to dry overnight. I just tested them and they work really well! I only had four food coloring colors, red, yellow, blue and green, so I wasn't able to come up with black or a very good purple. You can buy different colors, so next time I will. This is going to save me a fortune.
Homemade Watercolors
4 Tablespoons Baking Soda
2 Tablespoons White Vinegar 2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon Glycerin (I found this in the Wal-mart pharmacy area)
food coloring
ice cube tray
tooth picks
1. In a small bowl, mix the baking soda and vinegar until the fizzing stops.
2. Add the cornstarch and glycerin and mix thoroughly. You might think that the mixture is too thick and it needs more liquid. It doesn't, just keep mixing. It will be a strange consistency.
3. Spoon evenly into an ice cube tray or other tray. I used a plastic egg tray.
4. Add food coloring to each tray slot and mix thoroughly using a toothpick.
5. Let dry overnight. Some of the liquid will be seeping out and that's okay. In the morning it will be completely dry.
I do find the the mixture is thicker and requires more water than watercolors from the store. Also, I don't know if it's washable. I'll be testing that out this week I'm sure. ;-)
6 Notes:
How cool is that?!!!! How nice.
I'm so glad they worked for you! :)
Wonderful! I should try that! I wish I could find a recipe for tempera paint!
This is just cool. I'm going to guess no on the washable part, which is a huge bummer, because I pay more for the washable paints, and we really go through watercolors here. Where did you get your paint tray? The ones I saw at Michael's only hold 6 colors.
Autumn - I just Googled "homemade tempura paint" and found all kinds of recipes - you should check it out! :)
I found the tray at a thrift store. I'm pretty sure it's meant to hold eggs, but it works perfectly for the watercolors.
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