Homemade Water Color Paints

Good evening my lovely readers! I am going to start blogging more often now that school has ended for the summer season. I am very excited to share the projects that I have planned out for the summer, excited to share my trips, and recipes. I have many plans for my blog this summer, I am thinking about giving my blog a make over, but I will have to plan for that and make sure I like the style. I may purchase a custom template, who knows. Also this summer, I am thinking of dropping the .blogspot.com part of my web address, and get my own domain, so it will end up being barefootinbluejeans2011.com. I will have a .com! So, without further ado, I will begin on what the post is really about. I was browsing Pinterest the other day (when am I not browsing Pinterest?) and I came across this great idea of homemade water color paints. These paints are super easy to make, the ingredients come from your kitchen cabinets! I love things like that, where you know it's safe because you know where the ingredients came from... your kitchen! And it's all basic stuff like baking soda, corn syrup, corn starch, vinegar, safe stuff! I also found homemade playdough, homemade finger paints, I am going to start by doing a week of different projects. Tomorrow I am going to make playdough and I will sculpt something out of it. When my cousins come over, they will have a blast with this safe playdough. 

I had fun with my paints today. I haven't painted for fun in YEARS. I decided to get in touch with my artsy side, and doodle with my homemade paint. I painted many pictures today, and some of them are actually really cool and colorful. I will share more pictures, but here is a sample. 

homemade water colors
~1 cup of baking soda
~3/4 cup vinegar
~2 teaspoons corn syrup
~1 cup corn starch
~food coloring
~whisk
~ice cub tray
~mixing bowl with spout to pour

This is how it's done. 

First, pour baking soda into the mixing bowl and then slowly add in the vinegar. DON'T add it in all at once, it could fizz out of the bowl/cup and it wouldn't be fun to clean up. So add in the vinegar slowly. Once the vinegar and baking soda has stopped bubbling, whisk it together and mix the two ingredients. Baking soda won't mix very well, it always sinks to the bottom. Next, add in the corn syrup, mix again, then add in the corn starch and mix until all the ingredients are mixed together. Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray. To add in the color, use a popsicle stick to add in and mix the color to the mixture. Do so with all colors. 

Here is the process in collage form

Here is the result!

The popsicle sticks I used to mix the colors with were even kind of beautiful after they dried.  

My first painting was a simple balloon. I didn't know what to even paint when I began, so I looked on Pinterest (yet again) and I saw a water color balloon painting, so I decided to paint a water color balloon myself, to help get the ball rolling. 

Then I found another nifty, colorful, water color painting on Pinterest, just a beautiful mess of color. I wanted to do something very similar, so I did my own beautiful mess of color... but it's not the messiest of beautiful color messes that I did this evening. 

It's actually an organized, beautiful, color mess.

I love water color fruit. Painted, water color fruit is so cute to me! So I attempted to draw pears on a vine and a peach. Bear in mind... I'm no artist. I am creative! But I am no artist. 

Here are my pears... my shading isn't wonderful, or even close to it... but I heard somewhere that the shading doesn't have to always be perfect, in fact it could make it look better...

Here is the peach, actually really proud of my peach.... looks like an old, wrinkly peach. 

Here are the ones that I meant by a beautiful mess. A chaotic, beautiful mess instead of an organized, beautiful mess. 

I am really pleased with how this little project turned out. They actually worked! And they look really good. They are safe and free of harsh chemicals, the colors turn out so vibrant, and they actually look like water colors! I don't think I'll buy paint every again now that I know I can just make it with items from my kitchen.