Guys. Hey guys. You guys. This condensed-milk DIY is the easiest fingerpaint recipe ever. It's also sweet, shiny, and super-fun—and if your toddler ends up with this homemade paint in her mouth, you won't mind a bit. (Unless you haven't fed her sugar yet, in which case, my hat's off to you.)
I normally only stock sweetened condensed milk around the holidays, when that gooey nectar is a must for my family's favorite seven-layer cookies. (If you can eat less than seven at a time, again, my hat's off to you.) But I happened to have a few cans in the pantry, due to my serious Pinterest/iced coffee addiction. (There are a zillion recipes out there that promise sweetened condensed milk will basically change your coffee/life forever.)
While I haven't made any life-altering iced coffee, this homemade edible paint recipe definitely will transform your arts-and-crafts time. It's so simple, but so fun.
Ingredients:
Sweetened condensed milk
Food coloring
Paintbrushes, Q-tips, fingertips, etc.
Pour the sweetened condensed milk into as many containers as you like—it just depends on how many colors you want to create. My son and I kept it basic and made red, blue, yellow and green. My toddler loved mixing the colors as much as (okay, probably more than) the actual painting. In fact, he was busy stirring and mixing the condensed milk for quite a few minutes before we added any color.
The condensed milk takes the color easily and creates a vibrant, gorgeous—and sticky!—paint. It was easy for my kiddo to use all sorts of objects to paint with. He especially liked dripping the color off of his mixing spoons and, of course, smearing it all over the paper (and, truth be told, his legs, arms, and hands). On paper, the paint goes on smooth and shiny. Although it takes a long time to dry, that's half the fun—you can keep smearing and shifting and changing the colors. We loved the feel of it just as much as the look of it. (Okay, and the taste—I kept licking my fingertips.)
Because this fingerpaint is literally sugar-sweet, I wouldn't archive these paintings for long. But they make a great in-the-moment art activity. And despite all the stickiness, clean-up was a breeze. This DIY edible fingerpaint was easy, colorful, messy and fun…and almost as addictive as seven-layer cookies.
