If you’re looking for a fun and easy craft project, puffy paint is a fantastic choice! It’s perfect for kids and adults, adding a cool 3D effect to your artwork. Plus, it’s super easy to make at home with just a few ingredients.

Create colorful, textured artwork with this simple puffy paint recipe that doesn’t require shaving cream, making it easy and mess-free for all ages.
What You’ll Need to Make Puffy Paint
Ingredients:
- Self-raising flour
- Salt
- Water
- Food coloring (variety of colors)
- Plastic squeeze bottles or zip lock bags
- Paint brushes or Qtips
- Cardboard or cardstock
How To Make Homemade Puffy Paint
Step-by-Step Instructions:
This is really cool and super quick/easy DIY puffy paint recipe. Combine the following in a small bowl:
- 1 tablespoon self-raising flour
- a few little drops of food colouring
- 1 tablespoon salt
Then add some water and stir to make a nice smooth paste.

Brush puffy paint onto a nice thick sheet of cardboard (if you don’t have enough paintbrushes use cotton buds (Q-tips they work really well). The mixture can also be placed in small zip-loc bags. Cut the corner of the bag and squeeze the puffy paint out onto the cardboard.


Microwave the design on high for 10 – 30 seconds until the paint puffs and it’s all nice and dry. We did ours for 30 seconds.

Puffy paint is an excellent way to add some texture and fun to your craft projects. Whether you’re making art with your kids or enjoying a solo creative session, this easy fun painting craft will surely bring a smile to preschoolers to older kids as they create their very own masterpiece.
The craftiest mum out there, Melissa, from One Crafty Mumma is sharing her amazing homemade puffy paint recipe! Too cool!
More Fun Crafts
If you’re looking for creative, hands-on activities that are fun for all ages, these simple DIY crafts are perfect for you!
- Salt Dough: Create long-lasting ornaments, decorations and even jewelry with this simple salt dough recipe that hardens when baked.
- Oobleck: Explore the fascinating properties of this non-Newtonian fluid that acts as both a solid and a liquid, perfect for sensory play.
- Slime: This gooey, stretchy slime is a fun and satisfying craft that’s endlessly customizable with colors and textures.
- Scratch Art: Unleash vibrant colors hidden beneath a black surface by scratching away the top layer to reveal your unique designs.
- Homemade Stickers: Design and create your own stickers using simple materials (like wrapping paper), perfect for decorating notebooks, planners, and more.
- DIY Shrinky Dinks: Watch your artwork magically shrink into durable, miniature versions when you bake these fun plastic creations.
- Playdough: This soft and moldable homemade playdough provides endless creative possibilities for kids and adults alike.
- Salt Paint: Combine vibrant watercolors with salt to create textured, shimmering works of art that are fun to.
- Finger Paint: Dive into this hands-on activity where bright colors and freeform designs come to life with just your fingers and some homemade paint.
I would love to keep you fully stocked with creative ideas, yummy recipes, fun crafts, and loads of free printables. Subscribe to Skip to my Lou to get new ideas delivered to your inbox. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram for all my latest updates.












Great idea for this summer!! 😉
we made it this morning! it was so much fun! thanks!
http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/ViewEntry.asp?EntryId=1756375
Thanks for this great idea! We did this as part of our “Mommy Camp” and had a fabulous time 😉 Here’s the link to our experience: http://www.mymidlifecreativities.org/2010/07/mommy-camp-at-shaggyhill-farm-where_05.html
Thanks again!
Aimee
Thanks so much for this great idea!! My daughter was seriously craving some mommy time this afternoon while her sister was napping. We pulled out the ingredients (easy-peasy!!), and had a wonderful time crafting together! No preparation, no stress, just opened the pantry and got busy! Thank you so much 😀
Amazing!! I love it!
What a fun project! Thanks for sharing! I’m going to share your link with my facebook friends!
My kids and I just tried this. It was super easy and fun!
Here’s a recipe for self-rising flour if you don’t keep any on hand (like me)…
One cup self-rising flour equals:
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, plus
1/8 teaspoons salt.
Can’t wait to try this for craft day today w/ my gaggle of girls! Its gonna be a gigglefest, for sure!
how cute! my oldest son would get a kick out of this.
Cindy – I copied your adorable little puppy love bag idea and I posted about it on my blog. I added many links to you, I hope you don’t mind? I love everything you do and your site is one of my favorites!
http://livingmysweetlife.blogspot.com/2010/06/6-year-old-girls-birthday-gift.html
Love this idea!
look great !! it’s raining today, that will be perfect this afternoon with my triplet !
thank you for your great blog !
Hey, that is great summer fun! What kid could ever say “I’m bored!” with that around?!
What if you don’t have self-raising flour? Can you use regular flour with something added?
oh cool. will have to try this with dd.
love ur blog…just started a photography and design business….would you mind if i linked ur blog to my site?