10 Ingredients to Keep in Your Pantry for Kid Crafts

With school out, you’ll likely need to scrounge up things for the kids to do.  If you have these ingredients in the pantry, you’ll be able too distract them in an emergency.

1. Flour
2. Salt
3. Cream of Tartar or Alum
4. Kool Aid
5. Corn Syrup
6. Corn Starch
7. Oil
8. Baking Soda
9. White Vinegar
10. Food Coloring

Play Dough

I have two recipes that call for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 (flour, salt, cream of tartar or alum, Kool Aid and oil). It just depends on which method you’d like to use, the results are both great.

Awesome Playdough Recipes

Watercolor Paints

You have  a few options here.

1.  In an emergency, just open a pack of Kool Aid, dissolve in as little water as possible.  Paint away.  This smells nice too. A reader pointed this one out to me.

2.  If you have more time and you think putting together the ingredients will calm the kids, use 5, 6, 8,9, and 10.  These paints last longer.

How to Make Watercolor Paints

Finger Paints

1.  The easiest option is just corn syrup with food coloring.  It dries a little sticky.

2.  Water, flour and food coloring works too, though not as well.  But let’s face it, when your desperate, anything will do.

3. Cornstarch, water and food coloring heated on the stove is our favorite option.

4 Top Homemade Finger Paint Recipes Analyzed

I created a zone in my pantry with these 10 ingredients.

I’ve created a FREE download for my readers to reference. It has our favorite recipes for play dough, finger paints, watercolor paints and slime. 

Feel free to download it here. Enjoy!

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Tagged as: Art, Homemade Finger Paint, Homemade Watercolor Paints, Kids, Kids Activities, Kids Crafts, Kids Recipes, Playdough