Meet the Dubiens: make your own rainbow watercolors

Meet the Dubiens: make your own rainbow watercolors:I found the idea of making your own homemade watercolor paints on Martha Stewart and I absolutely loved it. Now that we've made our own watercolors, I'll never use anything else. These watercolors are absolutely amazing. I think they are far superior to any other watercolor paints I had previously purchased for my kiddos. It also makes quite a bit, so I bought some awesome individual containers and just close the lid after we use them and have lots leftover for the next time. I also love that you can control how bright/vibrant the colors will be by adding either a little or a lot of food coloring. I like vibrant, so that's exactly what mine are. I'm including this craft in our St. Patrick's day activities because we used our watercolors to make beautiful rainbows. Cam really wasn't interested in making rainbows, but Kirsten was really excited and did an amazing job. She painted four of them! I framed one of them and it looks amazing. Here are the instructions to make your own watercolors:

What you'll need (for each color):

2 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp light corn syrup
1 tbsp cornstarch

We made 6 colors - so you will need 6x the above ingredients

gel food coloring
6 bowls
spoons
airtight containers

watercolor paper
paintbrushes

* This recipe made a large batch and I was able to make a set for both Kirsten and Camden to have their own *

Directions:

1. in each bowl add the above ingredients - 2 tbsp baking soda, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1/4 tsp light corn syrup, 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix until everything is well dissolved. If the mixture is too thick, add a little bit more vinegar. You basically want it to be like an oobleck or gak consistency (can be formed but then melts away if you let it go).

2. add your food coloring to each bowl and mix well - we did a rainbow of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

3. pour your paint mixture into individual containers, leave the lids off and allow to dry completely - at least overnight.

4. give the paints to your kiddos (I made a set for each kid) with a paint brush, watercolor paper and a cup of water and let them paint away!