Making Your Own Natural Paints
Spring is one of the best times to break out the arts and craft supplies and get to work on your own masterpiece. It’s also an awesome indoor or outdoor activity for a season with weather that can best be defined as unpredictable.
And if you want to make your creativity session even more spring-like, try creating your own paints from all-natural materials. You probably already have all you need to make your own colorful paints right in your pantry!
Flour paint
Equal parts flour, water, and salt (plus a little food coloring)—that’s all you’ll need for this paint that is great for kids, as well as adults. It’s not a complete replacement for your craft store paint, as it will show up more like water color, but if you want to keep it safe and simple, you can’t beat this recipe.
Chalk paint
Have some old, broken pieces of chalk lying around? Put them to good use! Simply soak the chalk in water for a 10–15 minutes, then remove, and crush into a fine powder before placing back in the water. Gently tap an egg around all sides a few times to create cracks, but be careful not to allow the egg to fully break. Heat the eggs in a pot of boiling water for a minute or so, but remove from the heat before they cook. Add an egg yolk to the water and chalk mixture, and stir-well to create the paint!
Watercolor flower paint
What says spring more than making your paint from fresh flowers? Brightly-colored varieties can be transformed into gorgeous water color paint simply by submerging the flower in water, and rolling over it with a heavy object to transfer the color from the petals into the water.