A Mini Artist- Edible Finger Paints

Now I’ve been an artist, particularly a painter, since an early age in life....I would dare to say that I eat, sleep, and breathe in oils and acrylics but I’m no Picaso. (Thank God!) But I like to say I more than dabble in art.  I paid for a semester or two of college by selling pieces out of my grandparents framing shop and have  an occasional art show here and there.  So I’ve always wanted to start my kiddos out pretty early with a set of water colors and a brush.  Only, I’d never seen a mess quite like paint head to toe on a toddler, hair toes, eyes and all.  So when I came across this recipe for washable EDIBLE finger paints for kids, I was pumped.  Safe to make messes and to “accidentally” eat, because lets face it, for a one year old it’s still everything to the mouth most days.
So after researching the recipe (I didn’t like that it had corn starch in it) and a few others, I came up with a blended one of about three that I liked best.  There’s no nasty corn starch, no food colors or dyes, just four simple ingredients that most everyone has in their kitchen cupboard already.
1. 2 cup of flour
2. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3. A dash of salt
4. Kool Aid powder packs or substitute with Pedilite, Gatorade, or Crystal Lite packets.

Mix the flour with the sugar and dash of salt  in a bowl and then slowly add warm water as you stir. The mixture will begin first to resemble a dough like consistency before turning into more of a thick soup. Once it gets to a runny soup consistency stop adding water. (It’s a lot like a paste.)

Next I divided the paste up into my smaller containers to make several different colors. (I washed and reused fruit cup containers but any bowl or cup will do.)  Then add your choice powder mix for color, stirring until you have the color you desire.  I used Pedilite packets because it is “kid safe” already and their colors are as follows:
To get:
Purple --use grape
Pinkish red -- use strawberry or fruit punch
Green -- use apple
For Orange or Yellow use Gatorade packets or Lemon flavored Crystal Lite
For Blue you can either use food coloring or mix Grape and Strawberry flavor packets.

Then Enjoy! Here are some of the pictures of Liam exploring his artistic side for the first time.