Best Homemade Bubbles

Last summer, I tried out three different recipes for homemade bubbles, and I posted about our experiences here. This year, I had hoped to do a similar experiment and try out several more recipes for bubble solutions. However, I only tried this one. In part, time slipped away from me, but the main reason for not trying other recipes is that I really like this one! Recently, a few people have asked me for the recipe, so I decided it was time to share my current favorite bubble recipe.

This one has made the rounds on Pinterest and Facebook so you may have seen it before. When I saw it, people were claiming that it makes super industrial-strength, indestructible bubbles, so naturally I was curious to give it a go. The original recipe said to use JOY dish detergent, which I have been unable to find. So, I used Palmolive instead. I am not sure if the brand makes a significant difference, but our bubbles were pretty run-of-the-mill as far as pop-ability goes. With the right tools, however, this did create very large bubbles, and quite easily, I might add. Combine this with the fact that the recipe does NOT call for ingredients that are terribly expensive or more difficult to find (glycerin, for instance, which I used for last year's recipes) and it is a sure-fire winner.

So, far I've made a couple of batches, and we've had lots of fun with these bubbles throughout the spring and summer months. It was a hit at Logan's recent shark-themed birthday party. We have even  packaged this in small peanut butter jars along with homemade pipe cleaner wands and given it for birthday gifts along with some other homemade goodies, so this also makes a nice gift.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups water
• 1 cup light corn syrup (I used Karo.)
• 2 cups dish soap* (I used Palmolive.)

* If using ultra concentrated dish soap, reduce to 1 1/3 cups.

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, add water and corn syrup. Stir until combined. Note: It is difficult to completely dissolve the corn syrup, so just do the best that you can.
2. Add dish soap. Sand gently until well mixed, avoiding creating bubbles as best as possible.
3. Dip wands into bubble solution and blow or wave to create bubbles. Tip: To make it easier, pour the solution into containers such as cake pans and pie tins. Set these on the ground (or any flat surface) and let kids dip their wands into the solution.
4. To store bubble solution, pour it into a container with a lid. This should keep for many weeks. As mentioned above, I like peanut butter jars for this. They are unbreakable, but secure.

Note: Any bubble "wand" will work, whether it is something you have saved from commercial solutions or homemade wands made from twisted pipe cleaners, which are a favorite of mine.

Plastic bottles with the bottom cut off work very well for young children who are just learning to how to blow bubbles.

We've also had lots of fun this year with a couple of fly swatters that I got in a 2-pack at Dollar Tree, which can be used two different ways: first you can blow bubbles, or you can wave them around to create lots of tiny bubbles. We have found that swatting up and down works better than side to side.

Also, don't forget to check your kitchen for possible "wands!" Slotted spoons and spatulas are two that we have found to work well. I've even had success with old glow necklaces, which make quite large bubbles!

So, don't be afraid to think outside of the box (or commercial bubble container) here! It's very easy and affordable to make your own bubbles at home.

{Tiny bubbles... make me happy!}

DIY: Watercolor Paints

This recipe was one I first saw on Pinterest. Found here originally, this will make enough watercolor paint to fill 6 egg carton cups. If you want more colors, you can double the quantities, or just put less into each egg cup. I would probably just put less in each cup, since the yield for each color was quite a lot, considering that these are watercolor paints. This recipe is an easy and inexpensive way to make paint at home, and it's the first recipe I have seen for a true dried cake watercolor recipe. More importantly, it works!

{Trying out our watercolor paints}

Materials:

{Paint AFTER Setting Overnight}

• 4 Tbs baking soda
• 2 Tbs vinegar
• 1/2 tsp corn syrup
• 2 Tbs corn starch
• liquid food coloring
• empty egg carton
• mixing bowl
• spoons/skewers/popsicle sticks for stirring
• something to protect work surface
• paper 
• paintbrushes
• small container of water

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine baking soda with vinegar and wait until fizzing stops. 
2. Add corn syrup and cornstarch and mix. (Note: The original directions I found said until a "uniform consistency" but I found it glue-like on the top, and paste-like on the bottom, which is not what I would call "consistent" but it worked for me.)
3. Pour into egg cartons. You can pour it in without measuring, but I wanted to know quantities, and I found that one egg cup would hold 1 tablespoon of the paint mixture. Tip: For some reason our egg carton was leaking, so I quickly moved it on top of a cereal box liner (like free "wax paper"). I suggest covering your work surface before pouring the paint mixture into your egg cups to avoid leaks.
4. Add food coloring to each cup and carefully stir to mix. Tip: I tried using a spoon for this, but I found that it was sloshing the colors from one egg cup to the next. Then, I switched to a skewer, and had much more control. I used 5 drops each for red, yellow, blue, and green. To make orange, I combined 2 red + 3 yellow (this came out redder than I was hoping for, so maybe it needs more yellow) and purple was just plain odd. At first I combined 2 red + 3 blue and wound up with black! Then, I added 3 drops of neon purple and that combination made the nice deep violet that I was after.
5. Allow paint to set overnight. A couple of the colors had a little moisture on top when we used them, but this is okay.
6. Use wet paintbrushes to apply to paper. Tip: We used card stock, which worked fine, but watercolor paper is recommended. Thick paper is ideal. Tip: Paint shirts/smocks/old clothes are always my suggestion for painting with kids.
7. This paint dries quickly, which is nice because you can hang the paintings up much sooner than with other paints we have tried. Also, Mia liked that she could apply it thickly and get 3-D effects, not something that is normally achieved with watercolor paints. The colors do fade once they dry, but that is typical of watercolors, so I was not surprised by this.
8. This paint should keep for awhile, but with food type paints, it is hard to tell. (Note: Since I have the problem with the egg carton that is leaking, I am keeping mine on top of the cereal box liner for now. I may have to apply tape to the bottom in the future so that I can move this from my counter into our regular art supplies storage.)

{Finished Paintings}

Corn Syrup Painting

Here is a messy, but fun idea for painting using items you probably already have in your pantry. We did this indoors with lots of newspaper to protect everything. (Just don't allow paper to dry on the newspaper because it will likely stick.) You could also do this outside on a warmer day, which I think would be ideal. The only problem is that I was afraid to display these paintings when they were finished because I didn't want to attract ants or just plain have a runny, sticky disaster on the walls. I would say this project is about the process more than the finished product. (By the way, the finished product takes about a day to dry.) The colors are brilliant and in the end, the paintings are shiny and quite attractive, but I wouldn't suggest saving them for posterity. The idea for this one comes from here.

{"Daddy on a Summer Day" by Mia, Age 5}

Materials:

• paper
• crayon
• corn syrup
• bowls
• spoons
• food coloring
• paint brushes

Directions:

1. You will need one bowl for each color you are making. Pour in a small amount of corn syrup. We used about 1 tablespoon per bowl.
2. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl and mix with a spoon. We used 3 drops each of red, yellow, blue, neon green, and neon purple.
3. Draw your design onto paper using a crayon. Glossy art paper was recommended by the original poster, but I had poster board and paper plates on hand, and both worked fine.
4. Fill in design by painting with corn syrup.



{The end result is a glossy raised texture that resembles pottery glaze.}

5. Allow to dry. (This takes a long time... Some of ours were still smudged easily after 24 hours.)

{I painted the design on a paper plate, allowed to dry, and then cut into an egg shape. Note: The colors do run together so less intricate designs may work better.}