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As school comes to a close and summer begins this mama is looking forward to a summer of saying yes to all sorts of things that are usually too much to handle on a school night: sleeping in forts, staying up late, evenings of total house destruction crafting, eating watermelon shirtless in the yard…and loooong baths complete with bath paints!
Bath painting is seriously one of my girls favorite activities and making your own bath paints is both cost effective and super easy!
Homemade Bath Paint
BATH PAINT RECIPE
1/4 cup baby shampoo/hand soap/body wash (use whatever soap-y thing you have lying around- this recipe is great for using up shampoo you didn’t like, or the end of the body wash bottle)
1/4 cup corn starch
1-2 TBS water
3-4 drops food coloring
Combine cornstarch, shampoo, and food coloring. Add water 1/2 a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is thick enough to stick to the paint brush without much dripping, but thin enough to paint a line. If it gets too runny, add more cornstarch, too thick, add more water. Portion into a kids’ paint palette.
Let kids paint the walls, the bath and themselves for hours!
Store in an airtight container in a cool place. This recipe makes one baby-food size jar of paint.
Oh this is great! We are BIG bath paint fans in our house! Thanks for the recipe. I bet you’re loving the turn to good weather finally!
Jill, I love that you guys are big bath paint fans too! 🙂
Loving your kitchen redo, by the way! 🙂
I always have a question about the paints that use food coloring. Does the food coloring stain the kids or the bathtub? Thanks!
Rachel, not that we’ve found… we’ve tried it in a couple different types of tub (more porcelain/glass and plastic) and in both cases, a little rinse washes it right down. I will say, in the old house, we had ‘soft’ tile (travertine) and wouldn’t let the kids use the paints on there…
Thanks for the response! I’ve wanted to try it, but food coloring always stained my fingers, and I didn’t want to end up with green and purple kiddos. 🙂
Please tell me is it fine to use in the shower
You could probably use this in the shower as well- it’ll just wash down the drain as it gets wet. 🙂
This is so fun. We have got to try this!!
This is such a cute idea! I can’t wait to try it with my boys. Thanks so much for linking up with Moonlight & Mason Jars, I chose you as my favorite post this week! Come by and grab our “featured” button if you’d like. Hope you’ll link up again!
Heather- thanks for featuring us! 🙂 What a compliment!
Congrats! We have featured this project on the Moonlight & Mason Jars link party this week. Thanks for linking up!
Please grab our featured button when you get a chance.
Love,
Hilary @ Be Sweet Blog
Thuy @ My Paper Pinwheel
Heather @ Mama Dish
Taylor @ Taylor Made
Jennifer @ The Newlywed Pilgrimage
Thanks for the feature girls!
I love this… Thanks so much for letting me make this for my grandson… I’m on the budget not him… I feel like I have given him something to remember that didn’t have to go under to make or get this for him… He loves it <3 <3 <3 Thanks for the free info on it too… much help and fun…. thanks is not enough 🙂
Ohh – what fun! My kids would love this!
Jess, this is Jord’s recipe, but we use it around here too and the Smooches LOVE it. Like, beg to bath paint every night- haha. 🙂
If your concerned about the food coloring staining you can buy dye made for soap making at Michaels or any craft store. Thanks for the recipe my kids will love this!
Great tip Ashley!
We made this and I was running around the house I was so excited! We were buying the $5 avon kind and this was the exact same! Washed off the kids great! FYI – a little splashed on the grout in the kitchen and it did take awhile to get it off completely.
Jodi, we’ve had that problem too (in our last house), but thanks for the heads up. And so glad you guys loved it! 🙂
This is a great idea! I’m going to do this as a fundraiser for our church youth groups…get the kids to make and sell the bath paints!! I work with the kids and am a member of The Salvation Army in Annapolis, MD!!
What a fantastic idea Randi! 🙂
As a 22 year veteran of the Bathtub refinishing Industry. I would not be worried about the food coloring staining. However, before you leave your kids in the bathtub fro extended periods of time please know porcelain tubs before 1984 contain lead. If the tub is worn lead will leach into the bathwater. Professional refinishing will fix the issue but just wanted to make that point. Lead test kits are available at lowes, home depot, invest in one and test your tub!
One more point If the food coloring does stain please don’r use comet or s.o.s. pads try oxyclean. Food based stains are removed by oxygen. Just make a paste and let it sit.
wE HAVE JUST FINISHED THIS ACTIVITY! wHAT FUN IS ALL I CAN SAY EVEN THOUGH IT DIDN’T JUST STAY IN THE TUB, SHE GOT THE WALL, DOOR AND FLOOR PARTIALLY COVERED AND IT ALL CLEANED UP IN SECONDS!!!! i’LL BE SHARING THIS ONE FOR ALL MY KIDDO FRIENDS
Think I will give this a go and let me kids use it outside this summer, they can paint the patio! x
I love this Jess- what a great idea!
Just wondering how long the mixture lasts in the jars?
Leah- we use it all that night, so I don’t know…
This is so awesome! I just did this and right before I added food color I separated it into 4, 2oz portion cups so we had 4 colors to play with. It is such a fun, and easy project.
Great recipe! As I’m typing this, my 3 year old is having the time of her life painting the bathtub (and herself!), while singing about painting. I doubled the recipe and split it into 4 plastic fruit snack cups. No liquid food colouring in the house, so I just added about 1/2 a tsp of tempra paint to each cup. Made some nice vibrant pastel bath paints! (I’ve let her play with undiluted tempra paint in the tub before and only had some temporary staining from the red, so I expect this will clean up just fine. Enamel tub with a plastic surround though)
Dawn, I love it that this turned out so well for you guys! Reminds me that we need to make these again soon! 😉
I love this idea I never thought to make paint for bath time my child loves to paint on the walls and her self so this is a great ideA where she can do both
Ashley, my kids were asking to make this bath paint last night! Such a fun addition to bath time! 😉
This just saved bath time. Thank you!
I love this!!!
Incase anyone was looking for a food dye alternative. I was boiling beets today and it occurred to me that I could use the beet juice instead of food dyes {knowing this would end up in my son’s mouth}! I boiled down the beet water until there were only a few table spoons left, and was extremely saturated in color and replaced the water and dye with the beet water. Worked SO well! Was super bright pink! I assume blueberries and cherries would respond similarly. Any bright fruit or veggie water really and then just save it for your next batch! Can’t wait for bath time!!
What a great idea Erin! Love!
Cute idea……
I am making a bath time basket for a toddler and I don’t want to use glass jars. Am I able to store these in plastic bottles? Like the travel bottles the hold shampoo?
Tonya, totally! Plastic bottles would pose no problem at all…
My two little sisters and their friend had so much fun with this, this is the best bath paint recipe I’ve found so far!
Niki, love that so much!
will the paint burn if it gets in the eyes? since its made with shampoo
It probably will! I don’t know why this hasn’t ever happened yet (my kids aren’t particularly careful), but I’d say that it wouldn’t be great near the eyes.
Won’t the food coloring in the bath paint leave stains on shower walls, tub or my child’s skin? Answer ASAP Please and Thanks! ,
Tiffany Overstreet
I just saw the comment left saying soap dye can be used in place of food coloring in the bath paint and may be purchased at “Michaels” or any craft store, so nevermind my last comment!
Thanks,
Tiffany Overstreet
Cool
Does this stain your tub using food coloring?
Hey Bonnie- it hasn’t stained my tub. Every once in awhile, I’ll have to scrub the grout of the surrounding a tile a little, though. Hope that helps!
My kids both loved this! I made a single recipe and poured it into an ice cube tray, then added food colouring so we could make a small amount of a rainbow of colours. My big girl loved playing with colour mixing in the tub, and the little one liked ‘erasing’ everything with a scrubber at the end. Hours of fun!
Kiri, that’s totally what I do as well (make a bunch and then tint a whole rainbow of colors). So glad your kids loved it as much as mine do!
We absolutely loved your recipe. So much so that we used it on our YouTube video. https://youtu.be/5nw7ixQzye0
Check it out to hear the shout out we gave your page. Plus we linked your webpage in our description. Please keep the fun ideas coming. #MakeWay4Janee
Has anyone used this for other things like window painting?
I haven’t (though, we’ve been intending to make this recipe again so maybe we’ll try it). Let me know if you give it a go and I’ll update the post if we try it as well!