No Mess Painting

I've seen a bunch of mommy blogs talking about painting in a sealed plastic bag, taped onto a table.  It looked like fun, and an easy way to paint without worrying about a big mess.  I found a homemade finger paint recipe on Pinterest a while ago, and have hesitated making it because I'm not sure that Colin is ready for it.  This gave me an opportunity to try both. 

First, I made the finger paint.  It's very easy, and you can find it at this website. I was expecting it to be like the photos, but it didn't quite work that way.  I followed the recipe exactly, and got lumpy, thick "paint".  I added some water and it thinned, but it was still lumpy.  I found another website that used this recipe that advised to remove the mixture from heat before it reaches it's desired consistency because it will thicken as it cools.  I found this website after I made it all and had a lumpy, thick mess.  I added color to it anyway, because I wasn't going to stop the project midway through.

This is what my paint ended up looking like:

I put 8 drops of food coloring in for blue and red, less for yellow, and it worked for the yellow, but everything else was still pretty pale.  I wonder how much I'd need to use to get the dark, beautiful colors I was picturing.  Also, if I have to add much more food coloring to get dark colors, won't it stain fingers?  I guess it's a good thing we were bag painting with it and not finger painting. 

After it was all set, and in a bag, I couldn't figure out how to get the air out so Colin could "paint" without a bunch of air bubbles.  I tried several ways, and lets just say it's good there was no video camera on me during this portion of the project.  For me, it was good.  You all would have had a good laugh. 

I taped the bag down on Colin's high chair first, because I was making more granola bars and I thought it would keep him occupied while I cooked and cleaned up my mess.  I was wrong.  He told me "done" less than 2 minutes after I put him in the chair.  After that, I taped the bag to the tile on my kitchen floor, and just let him come back to it when he wanted.  We both played with it for a while, but it didn't really hold our attention. 

I ended up putting paint in a smaller bag, and that worked better.  I had put too much in the large bag, and that plus the air in it didn't create a really workable surface. 

So, if you want to do this for your kids someday.  Learn a few things from me.  1) Don't let your paint thicken so much when it's cooking.  2) Use lots and lots of food coloring, except with yellow.  I used 6 drops of yellow, and that was plenty bright.  3) If you buy painters tape from the dollar store, you should expect that it won't stick really well.  Splurge and buy nicer stuff, maybe it will work better and your kid won't have more fun peeling it up over and over.  4) Only put in a small amount of paint into the bag.  If you use a large amount, it just doesn't smear around as well.  5) This is probably an activity meant for children a little older than Colin.  Not quite 2 is not the ideal age for this. 

He enjoyed it a little, but I expect it to be more entertaining in a year or so.