Easy DIY puffy paint with only three ingredients

If you’re looking for an easy, craft for kids and toddlers, this DIY puffy paint is perfect for children of all ages. With just three simple ingredients, your kids will be having loads of fun and getting their creativity on. Check it out!

So, I have five kids, so sometimes it’s difficult to find crafts that all of them would like. That’s why I love doing puffy paint. It is easy enough for a toddler but engaging enough for tweens. Plus, it’s really easy to make and not very expensive. Here’s how to make it.

Gather your DIY puffy paint supplies

Yep, you heard me right. This puffy paint recipe only requires three ingredients. And most likely, you already have these common ingredients at home. Here’s what you’ll need:

Supplies for puffy paint — *Puffy paint ingredients*

Make your puffy paint

This easy recipe is the best homemade puffy paint recipe and is so incredibly easy to make. In a large bowl, combine:

1/4 cup of Elmer’s glue (white glue)
1/2 cup of Barbasol shaving cream
Few drops of food coloring of your choice

Mix everything together until the color is well-blended together. I didn’t anticipate how much glue this puffy paint would require. One of those small containers of glue only holds like 1/2 cup of glue. So, you may want to buy one the big one gallon containers if you’re going to be making lots of different colors.

Puffy paint mixture — *Making homemade paint or puff paint*

Scoop DIY puffy paint into ziplock bags

The recipe above makes one small plastic baggie of puffy paint. So, you’ll want to repeat the above process for each color of puffy paint that you want to make into small bowls or paper bowls. We did seven different colors.

*Various colors of puffy paint in bowls. You can try neon colors too*

It took me about 20 minutes to make and scoop all the different colors of puffy paint with a small spoon into zip-close plastic bags. Alternatively, you can also put your puffy paint into plastic squeeze bottles. Then twist and close each bag off with a twisty tie.

Start painting!

Now for the fun part. Snip a small hole off the corner of the bag. Then your kids can just pipe out the paint like a frosting bag onto a piece of paper, card stock or heavier paper. You can give them something specific to paint or you can give them all the creative liberties they want. The kids loved it!

My 3-year-old didn’t even try to make a picture of anything, she just liked squirting the paint onto a paper. But my 8-year-old and 10-year-old took their time to create their own artistic masterpieces. So it’s perfect for young toddlers, older kids and kids of all ages. It was so much fun that my kids wanted to do DIY puffy paint again the next day. When they dry, it is such a fun texture to touch.

I even tried out a few designs myself. Here’s a few samples. The sky’s the limit and this is a great craft any time of year. You can also spread the paint with a popsicle stick or paint brushes or cotton swabs. You may want to lay out some disposable plastic table cloths for easy clean up.

Pictures made with puffy paint — *Puffy paint masterpiece made with puffy paint*

I hope you enjoy this fun art project. It’s a simple DIY and a great way to have a sensory-rich art experience. Here’s a short little video I made explaining how to make DIY puffy paint as well for your viewing enjoyment. Thanks for visiting my blog!