Each year for Christmas as I was growing up, one of my grandmothers would make my sister and I a sweatshirt that was decorated with puffy paint. She bought her puffy paint from the store, but I thought it would be fun to help my children create a puffy paint picture only after making their very own puffy paint. You can use this puffy paint recipe to decorate a piece of paper, a shirt, or to personalize a book bag.

• Age Guideline: 3 Years and Up
• Time Required: 15 to 20 minutes (does not include drying time)

The age and time guidelines listed above are estimates. This puffy paint recipe can be modified to suit other ages, and may take a little more time if you alter the craft to fit your needs.

Materials Needed:

• Newspaper sheets
• Smock
• Restaurant squeeze bottles ()
• 1/2 cup shaving cream
• 1/8 cup flour
• 1/8 cup clear school glue
• 10 drops of food coloring
• Wooden skewer for stirring
• Item to decorate

Instructions:

Cover your work space area with a few newspaper sheets. This craft is messy and you want to protect the surface of your table. You will also want to have your children run and put on a smock or an outfit that you don't mind paint getting on. It is my experience that even when kids are careful, accidents happen and paint can be a very difficult stain to get out.

Obtain one restaurant squeeze bottle for each color of puffy paint that you'd like to create. I found a three pack of restaurant squeeze bottles at my local Dollar Store, so you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a set.

I highly recommend them though, as they help you get the best puffy paint effect. They are also easy for younger children to work with.

Help your child measure and pour 1/2 cup of shaving cream, 1/8 cup of white flour, and 1/8 cup of clear school glue (available in craft stores) in each of the squeeze bottles. So if you plan on making four colors, you'd need a total of 2 cups of shaving cream, 1/2 cup of white flour, and 1/2 cup of clear school glue. I suggest at least making red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple.

Next, you'll need to add 10 drops of food coloring to each of the restaurant squeeze bottles. Each one should have a different color. You may need to combine two different colors to get the color you want. For example, you might not find purple food coloring in your local grocery store, but all you need to do is mix blue food coloring with red food coloring. Red and yellow together will make the orange, and blue and yellow will make green.

Stir the ingredients in each of the restaurant squeeze bottles with a wooden skewer. You could use a stick if you want, but I like wooden skewers because they are long enough and easily disposable when I'm finished getting the puffy paint ready.

Squeeze the puffy paint onto the item you want to decorate.

Set the puffy paint picture aside to dry and then proudly display it for all to see.

Tip:

Add more food coloring if you want your puffy paint to have a darker shade, or use less food coloring to obtain a lighter color.