Art Recipes

Make your own art materials by mixing up common household supplies.

  • Colored Flour Paste

    An all-natural substitute to commercial puffy paint, this colored paste is characterized by intense colors and a sparkling appearance. It dries with a gritty and somewhat brittle texture.

  • Colored White Glue

    Make your own puffy paint by mixing some poster paint or acrylic paint with white glue. This 3-D paint has a shiny, rubbery and raised appearance when dry.

  • Glass Paint

    This glue-based glass paint substitute is so easy to make that you can prepare it right before starting your intended art project or painting session.

  • Papier Mache Paste

    Several recipes for making papier mache paste, all of which utilize common household supplies.

  • Salt Dough

    An organic alternative to commercial play dough or commercial self-hardening clay. Salt dough sculptures can be air-dried or oven-dried to set.

  • Sand Dough

    A no-cook dough that can be used to make gritty sand-like sculptures that can be air-dried to set.

Quick How-To's

Use these quick and crafty solutions for your arts and crafts.

  • Basic Color Mixing

    A basic lesson on mixing primary colors into secondary colors.

  • Blowing Out an Egg

    Remove the contents of an egg to obtain an intact eggshell for egg decorating and dyeing crafts.

  • Basic Cone Hat

    Learn how to make a cone-shaped paper hat either from a half circle or quarter circle. Decorate your cone into a clown hat, witch's hat, wizard's hat, princess cone hat, or other cone-shaped fun hats.

  • Colored Aluminum Foil

    Color aluminum foil in a few easy steps. Once dry, it can be used for making colorful metallic collages, mosaics, and other craft projects.

  • Colored Cotton

    An easy way to color cotton with creative suggestions for using them in your craft projects.

  • Colored Pasta

    How to color uncooked pasta with food coloring.

  • Curling Fabric Ribbons

    Learn how to curl fabric ribbons by spraying with starch solution.

  • Curly Ribbons (Plastic-type)

    Curling plastic ribbons with a pair of scissors.

  • Mixing Plaster of Paris

    Learn how to mix Plaster of Paris for your sculpture and craft projects.

  • Painting with Glitter

    Add sparkle to your craft projects by painting with glue and glitter.

  • Papier Mache Balloon

    How to papier mache around a balloon.
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