DIY Puffy Paint: A STEAM Project for Kids

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If there’s one thing I love, it’s an experiment. And this DIY puffy paint was a bit of an experiment. But boy oh boy did this one work out really well.

On this day, our neighbors were homeschooling with us. The four kids helped me whip up a batch of puffy paint, split it into smaller containers to add a variety of colors, and then created their masterpieces.

We were all pretty impressed when our wet paint got “baked” in the microwave and turned into something resembling colorful bread.

It was very cool!

Note: For more creative and kid-friendly art projects, see my arts and crafts for kids page.

Make your own simple 3-ingredient DIY puffy paint with only flour, baking powder, and salt. My kids loved painting these puffy creations that we "baked" in the microwave. #artsandcrafts #processart #giftofcuriosity || Gift of Curiosity

To make your own puffy paint, you will need the following materials:

Flour (regular flour will probably work best, but since we are gluten-free we used a combination of oat and rice flour and it still worked wonderfully)
Baking powder
Salt
Water
Large bowl for mixing the ingredients for the paint
Small containers to separate the paint into different colors
Liquid watercolor paints or food dyes
White cardstock (preferable) or paper
Craft sticks and/or paint brushes
Microwave safe plate or tray
Microwave

DIY Puffy Paint Recipe

Combine the following ingredients together:

1 cup flour
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Enough water to give the mixture the consistency of thick yogurt

Once your paint has the correct consistency, split it into multiple smaller containers and add a squirt of liquid watercolor paint to each container.

Stir with a craft stick to mix the color into the paint.

Now you are ready to paint!

Hint: If the puffy paint sits for a while it may thicken up. Simply add a bit more water and stir.

Creating with Puffy Paint

Because the puffy paint should go on thick and raised, we found it easier to apply the paint with a craft stick rather than a paint brush.

Some of the kids simply dripped splatters of paint onto their papers.

Other kids decided to create images, such as flowers.

Once the kids had finished their painting, I put their artwork on a microwave safe plate. I put the plate and painting in the microwave on high for 30 seconds.

Caution: This part should be done by an adult since the plate may get quite hot in the microwave.

When the painting came out, the painting was “cooked” and had the consistency of bread! (There was one painting that needed an additional 10 seconds or so, but most of the paintings only needed 30 seconds.)