Corn Syrup Painting

Sweet Pea is 4 years old.

From:  This beautiful corn syrup painting idea from eighteen25 has been on my to-do list for over a year.

Material:

• Corn syrup.
• 3-4 Small bowls.
• 3-4  colors of liquid watercolors or food coloring.
• Crayons.
• Paper.
• Paintbrush.
• Smock for your tot.
• Damp Sponge for clean up.

Procedure:

• Put  2-3 TBS of corn syrup in each bowl.
• Stir several drops of liquid watercolor into to each of the bowls.

• Invite your tot to draw something interesting on the paper with a crayon.

• Show your tot how to paint the corn syrup over his crayon drawing.

• After your tot is done, place his painting somewhere out-of-the-way to dry for at least 2 days.

Observations:  This activity was very fun for both of us, but VERY sticky.  lol.

Sweet Pea loved this and our pictures turned out beautifully shiny and 3-dimensional.

This was really interesting and while it was “sticky”, the corn syrup was easy to clean up with a damp sponge.   If you can handle a bit of a mess, I highly recommend it for preschoolers and up.

Notes from the Trenches: Drawing with crayon first is important because the corn syrup does not stick to the wax as well as the paper, so it runs off and pools in the empty spaces.  Doesn’t it just looks so neat?  I almost didn’t bother with the crayons, but am glad I did.

The paintings look stunning, but are very fragile.  While the corn syrup paint does get “dry” after a few days, it will always retain a slight tackiness.    The paintings start very shiny, but if you touch them, they will become dull from your fingerprints.  Also if you bend the paper, the paint will crack and leave tiny lines all over the surface.  Lastly, I worried that saving these might attract ants, so this is mostly a “process, not the product” type of art activity.

Rating: 4 Stars * (Fun, Easy, Independent, Frugal)

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