Dish Soap Painting

Spending a rainy afternoon indoors led to some new painting techniques being tried out. We have tried out quite a few home-made paint recipes lately, and this one is definitely a winner. Mia was skeptical when she first saw the paint, and said, "We already made this..." She thought it was corn syrup paint, which does looks similar, but is not nearly as nice to work with. After she tried it out, she quickly changed her mind. Right away she exclaimed, "I like it! Please make me more colors." It's really hard not to like this paint. There are only 2 ingredients, so it is quick, simple, and very inexpensive to make. It also has a nice consistency, thicker than watercolors, but not as gloppy or opaque as tempera paints. And the best part of all is that it cleans up really well. I had a slight moment of panic when Logan dropped his paintbrush and got neon pink food coloring on the beige carpet in our dining room, but as soon as I scrubbed gently with a damp cloth, it came right out. This paint was hands down the easiest to clean out of brushes and bowls of any paint we have ever used, store-bought or home-made. I found the recipe for dish soap paint here. We will definitely make it again.

Materials:

• liquid dish soap 
• food coloring
• bowls (one per color)
• spoons (one per color)
• paper
• paintbrushes
• newspaper (to protect work surface)

Directions:

{By Logan, Age 2}

1. In a small bowl, mix dish soap and a few drops of food coloring. Stir with a spoon.
2. Repeat for each color as desired. 
3. Protect work surface with newspaper (and kids' clothing if desired).
4. Have fun painting. Another nice thing about this paint is that it dries fairly quickly compared to other types of paint we have used.

{By Mia, Age 5}

Notes:

• I made small batches using 2 teaspoons of dish soap and 4 drops of food coloring for each color. 
• This worked fine for most colors, except for yellow. Since we had blue Dawn dish soap, it was more green than yellow once the two were mixed together. However, doubling the number of drops of food coloring solved this problem well enough. (Using a colored dish soap may prevent the colors from being true. This will vary depending on how much food coloring you use, and which colors you choose. Clear dish soap was recommended by the site where I found the directions.)
• The website where I found the recipe suggests that you can also use powdered tempera paints in place of food coloring. We don't have powdered tempera paints, so I stuck with the food coloring, but that is always an option for a different time.