Homemade Edible Finger Paint

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 We made some home made finger paint today and had great fun with our little group of Mums and tots with babies as young as 6 months getting involved in the action! It's totally edible (though not that delicious!) and completely non-toxic, and the best part is it was so easy to make and will last!

 This is the recipe ( I googled a few, found the common denominator and went from there):
* 2 cups of corn flour (corn starch in the US I think)
* 1 cup of cold water
* 4.5 cups of boiling water
* Liquid food colouring

Method:
Mix the cornflour with the cold water and stir together. Pour in the boiling water and stir between each cup. It goes really strange (you are basically mixing a hot oobleck goop) but keep stirring and it literally seems to "melt" into a wonderful, custard-like consistency. We then separated it into individual jam jars before adding colouring, but you can do it however you like and this is the stage to add colour.

Edited to add:
Some people have found that the paint remains liquid and doesn't thicken up as it should. I have no idea why this should be, but I have two possible solutions, based on the fabulous commenters below!

1. Try simply adding up to 1 more cup of cornflour/ cornstarch and see if that helps to thicken it.
2. Try mixing the paint in a pan on a medium heat instead of just in a bowl, as that will help to bring it together.

It's always frustrating posting recipes that work brilliantly when you try them yourself, but for some reason don't work for everyone! I can only assume it's down to slight change in ingredients used and perhaps how the directions are followed. Do try it as it is LOVELY stuff! Thanks :-)

 C helped me to spoon this into the jars and she absolutely LOVED every minute of the whole process!

 I added a squeeze of colouring to each jar and then between us we mixed them up.

 During mixing they looked fabulous!

 And the finished paints look like a little work of art :-) Almost too good to paint with...but not quite.

 All lined up and ready for action. I put in some thick paint brushes for the toddlers but expected babies to use their fingers. They seemed to understand that perfectly :-)

 Baby Boy is 6 months and this was his first little painting. We weren't sure how impressed he was!

 Kiddies getting stuck in and a couple more crawling on the floor, waiting for their turns!

That's more like it baby Boy, get those fingers in and give it a good squish!
                               

 It was a bit like painting with coloured, waxy custard! Very strange yet extremely pleasing to touch!

K experimenting with double paint-brushing.

 J having a whale of a time!

 Big boy N knows how to paint properly!

Someone got a tad possessive of all "her" paints. "Dey Mines!"

 And then we introduced edible finger paint number 2! Chocolate and strawberry Angel Delight pudding mixes (although these were actually a Sainsbury's Basics range for 7p each!) We just mixed the powder with milk and whisked it until lovely and thick, then put it on the table for them to touch and add to their paintings. There was no added food colouring, but lovely brown, chocolatey messiness everywhere nonetheless :-)

 Baby J was very interested in the chocolate pudding goo! Who can blame him?!

 It's important to use ALL of the senses when exploring! Yum yum!

 And C did a little bit of mark-making with a fork through the lovely, thick, gloopy mess.

 Little Pop found the brush very tasty and had her fair share of pudding paint too.

Overall verdict? Very easy to make and extremely satisfying results in terms of texture and consistency. Lovely to know that it is non-toxic and edible, therefore safe for even the really tiddly ones. Colours are quite light and therefore don't make a bold mark on paper, but I'm sure if you used a lot more colouring that could be fixed. The paint is thick and gel-like and so takes a long time to dry, but when it does it makes a great, almost 3-D effect on the paper! I have put the lids on our jam jars and will try storing them in the fridge and see how long they last. Hope hubby doesn't spread them on his toast by mistake!

 This activity is good for:
* involving all ages of children
* creativty and expression
* using fingers and tools to do mark-making
* exploring the senses and discovering new textures
* knowledge and understanding of the world: following a recipe, mixing and stirring, combining materials and mixing colours
* gross and fine motor skills (mixing the colours into the paint was hard work!)

We have another home made paint recipe to share tomorrow! Enjoy messy, creative, fun!