How To Make Puffy Paint

Learn how to make puffy paint! It’s part science experiment, part art project and a fun way to liven up what might have been another ordinary day ;).

Speaking from experience here, it’s really fun to squeeze this paint and then microwave your art and see it change! Kids love the unexpected, and so do I!

Ingredients & Supplies for 3D Puffy Paint Recipe

This puffy paint recipe is easy to make and affordable too- it’s a handful of affordable kitchen staples!

Gather up the following ingredients- this recipe makes enough for 2-3 colors:

• 1 cup flour (self-rising flour “puffs” even better, but I didn’t have any!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup of cold water 
• food coloring
• mixing bowl
• fork or whisk
• squeeze bottles (these are the exact ones we used) or ziplock baggies
• microwave

How to Make Puffy Paint

Start by saying “this is going to be magical!” a couple of times. That’s what I did, anyways. Next, mix the flour and salt together, then add the water and stir.

 It should be the consistency of a slightly thinner pancake mix. You don’t want it to be too thick, or it will get stuck in the squeeze bottles and will mess up the whole activity! Not fun.

Then split the ‘batter’ into as many bowls as you need for the number of colors you want. Once the batter is split into the bowl, add the food coloring and mix. We made pink, blue, green, and orange (per the request of each child helping). I used some liquid food colorings and some gel food coloring. 

Now you’ll need to add the colored batter into the squeeze bottles and put on the lids OR the messier but ultimately still effective way to do this is to pour the colors each into their own ziplock bag. We’ve done it both ways and I definitely prefer the squeeze bottles!

If you’re using plastic baggies, cut a tiny corner out from the bottom of the bag so you can squeeze paint out the corner. The hole in the corner of the bag needs to be very small so the paint doesn’t just ooze out everywhere!

How to Use Puffy Paint to Make 3D Art

Lay out a piece of paper (construction paper, printer paper, cardstock, a piece of cardboard… whatever you’ve got!) and let your child start designing! Black construction paper really makes the colors pop.

Make some art of your own while you’re at it! Show your child how to squeeze as they draw, and don’t worry if they use a lot of paint. This is one of those rare projects that turns out cool, if not cooler, when kids use a lot of the paint!

Let your child keep their art open-ended. The most magical part of this project is what happens AFTER the painting is done. Any shape of art from scribbly squiggles to mandala patterns to doodles and drawings will be fun to turn puffy! 

When the designs are done, pop them in the microwave (one at a time) for 30 seconds – 2 minutes (the longest I’ve ever microwaved a puffy paint project – see pro tips below for details on timing). If there is a loooooot of paint on your paper, you may need more time in the microwave.

POOF! When you remove it from the microwave, the art will be hardened and puffy! 

How cool is this?! What’s going on? Chemistry! The heat from the microwave basically bakes the art, it rises up like bread.. and hardens. Now your art is 3D! 

Puffy Paint Is A Great STEAM Activity

Again, we find an intersection of art and science- which is always a win! Make a hypothesis before the wet paint goes into the microwave –  ask them “what will happen when we microwave our art?”

After microwaving the art and wowing about the results, talk about what happened!

Was your hypothesis accurate?

What happens inside a microwave. Do things get warm or cold?

What did the heat do to our art?

You can even bring up solid-liquid-gas states and how temperature affects them.

Talk! Be amazed together! Have fun doing art together. ❤️ The days are flying by!

Pro Tips for Using Puffy Paint

So how long do I microwave my projects? If it’s a moderate amount of puffy paint, I start with 30 seconds. You can add more time.

Keep in mind microwaves vary in power and if you feel like you ALWAYS have to cook things longer than you think, cook this longer too. If your microwave usually zaps things and burns your microwave popcorn, start with 30 seconds!

If there’s a lot of paint on the paper, I jump straight to a minute. And if there’s more than a lot of paint on the paper, like this:

I go straight to 90 seconds, but I ended up adding 30 and microwaved this beauty for 2 whole minutes until it looked like this. My preschooler though her 3D art was sooooo cool, and I agree!

If you don’t want there to be wet marks on your artwork when if first comes out of the microwave, turn your microwave turntable OFF and then wipe the plate of your microwave dry in between projects.

You might also enjoy:

• 3 Homemade Paint Recipes for Toddlers
• Tips for Painting with Kids
• How to Have a Valentine’s Day Tea Party for Kids

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