day 11: watercolor finger paint

 

As time moves on, I’ve been looking for ways to include Griffin in our daily lives.  For me, this means having photos of him in various rooms we frequent, as well as more subtle nods, like handmade art and inspiring phrases.

I found a recipe for finger paint in an old church cookbook, and decided to try it out with Emily.  This finger paint has laundry detergent in it, and even the most vibrant of colours seemed easy to wash off, probably because there’s already soap in it!  We did our painting in the bath tub, so I was also able to use the shower head to just rinse off the walls afterwards.  Also, this recipe seems to create a more watercolor look, so it might not work as well with stamping.

Easy Clean-Up Finger Paint

1 cup liquid detergent
1 cup flour
1 cup water
Food colouring

Mix the flour and water together until smooth, and then slowly stir in the liquid detergent.  You don’t want the soap to suds up.  It makes a big batch, so divide it up into smaller containers before adding food colouring.  You can also keep a pre-mixed batch in the fridge so that it’s easy to pull out small amounts and tint it as the need arises!

   I taped off my lovelies’ letters on a couple pieces of paper, and then let Emily go crazy painting on them however she wants.  I gave her a foam brush as well, which she seemed to prefer.  She didn’t really get the idea of finger painting at first (she touched the paint with her fingertip then immediately asked to wash her hands), but I dipped my fingers in and showed her how on the extra piece of paper and she jumped right in.

The paints QUICKLY became mixed and changed colour a bit, but we weren’t aiming for perfection!

We even did a little bit of painting on her tummy and arms, but I didn’t know how her skin would react to the detergent (we use the Ecos detergent from Costco, so it IS plant based) so we quickly moved on to the clean up stage.  I think Emily loved helping clean up more than she loved painting!