At Home Activity: Bump-It-Up Paint

A textured pink fish in the ocean painted with a few simple ingredients found at home

Take your at-home painting game to the next level.  

With today’s at home activity, you can combine a few easy-to-find ingredients to make your own textured paint. Your little ones will satisfy their inner chemist by creating their own paints, then use those paints to create three-dimensional works of art.  

It’s an easy, fun, win-win art activity for your whole family. 

Bump-It-Up Paint 

Supplies needed for the Bump-It-Up Paint activity (food coloring, measuring cups, paintbrushes, bowls, and more)

What you’ll need: 

  • Bottle of shaving cream 

  • White school glue 

  • White flour 

  • Food coloring 

  • Measuring cups 

  • Paint brushes 

  • Stiff paper or cardboard (the back side of a cereal or snack box works best)   

How to: 

  • Make your paint: 

  • Measure ¾ cup of shaving cream and put into large mixing bowl 

  • Measure ¼ cup of glue and add to shaving cream, slowing folding the two together 

  • Measure ¼ cup of white flour and add to mixture, folding in until mixed 

  • Separate the mixture into small bowls and stir a different food coloring in each 

  • Create pictures: Use paintbrushes, sponges or your fingers to apply the paint. You can build up surfaces with large blobs of the paint. Use different thicknesses to show how something might seem closer or farther away.   

  • Find a safe place to let your paintings dry. Thicker areas may take overnight to dry.   

Cleanup: 

Clean up right away if you can by rinsing everything in the sink. Otherwise you’ll need to soak everything in a bowl or tub of water.