Edible Art Plus 8 Art Supply Recipes

Welcome to the July 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Family Creations
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared crafts, recipes, and philosophies of creativity. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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Babies, toddlers, preschoolers and even school aged children are known for their love of arts and crafts. The messier they are the better.

Messy arts and crafts sometimes mean that little fingers full of paint, glue, clay, or other materials end up in the mouth.  Sometimes the art supplies themselves end up in the mouth.

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely do not want any synthetic concoctions, chemicals, or questionable substances entering my little girl’s precious body. My solution? Edible art!

Edible art is just as fun, if not more fun than your standard art store fare. Edible art supplies are easy to make with your child and even more fun to use with your child. Sure, some of these art supplies are sugar laden but I would rather see a little sugar pass my child’s lips than obnoxious chemicals no matter how “non-toxic” they supposedly are.

Here are a few of our favorite edible art recipes! Give them a whirl! I guarantee your child will love them!

Edible Finger Paint

Ingredients

• Corn syrup (thick)
• Food coloring

Directions

• Put a good size blob of syrup on a thick piece of white or cream colored construction or craft paper.
• Add a drop or two of food coloring onto the syrup.
• Let your child have at it!

Watercolor Paints

Ingredients

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• Several drops food coloring

Directions

• Mix ingredients together
• Get out the brushes and paper.
• Have fun!
• This “paint” will be light in color and have a somewhat glossy finish .

Whipped Cream Finger Paint

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• Food coloring

Directions

• Put 1 cup of whipped cream in a mixing bowl and mix with electric mixer.
• Add food coloring until you have the desired color.
• Paint and have fun!

Pudding Paint

Ingredients

• 1 large package instant vanilla pudding
• 2 cups ice cold water
• Food coloring

Directions

• Whisk instant pudding and water together in a bowl for 2 minutes.
• Refrigerate for 5 minutes.
• Divide the pudding paint into several small containers or a muffin tin and add different food coloring to each one. 

This makes a thin paint. If you want a thicker finger paint texture, just mix up the pudding as per package instructions or buy the canned, ready-made pudding in the grocery stores.

Edible Peanut Butter Playdough

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup powdered milk

Directions

• In a medium sized bowl, mix and knead all of the ingredients together.
• Play!
• Use raisins, chocolate chips, pretzels or other yummy snacks to add to your playdough creations!
• Do not store or reuse this playdough, this is one time use only!

Mashed Potato “Clay”

Ingredients

• Instant potato flakes
• Water

Directions

• Make as little or as much of this clay as you want. Simply use about 2/3 of the water called for in the recipe to give the potatoes a thicker, more clay like consistency.
• Cook according to package directions.
• Cool.
• Play!

Applesauce Cinnamon Dough

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cinnamon
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 plastic zip lock sandwich bag

Directions

• Pour cinnamon and applesauce into zip lock bag.
• Seal bag and knead until mixture turns to dough.
• Allow your dough creations to air dry for 12 hours or until hard.

Cream Cheese Play Dough

Ingredients

• 8 oz. package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
• 1 tablespoon honey

Directions

• Combine cream cheese, milk and honey in a bowl and mix until well blended.
• Mold sculptures on wax paper.
• Storage: Unused portions MUST BE STORED in an airtight container and kept refrigerated! Because cream cheese is perishable, use the expiration date on the cream cheese package as your guide for how long you can keep this play dough.

About food coloring….

I am not a fan of store bought food dyes. I prefer to make my own. Not only are they safe and easy to make, but the colors are so rich!

Below is a chart offering some basic natural coloring options.

Desired Color	Food to Add	Amount to Add per 1 Cup of “Material”	Other Instructions
Yellow	Turmeric (stale is more flavor neutral)	1 tsp	Add a small quantity of milk to get to desired consistency
Baby pink	Raspberries	Mash and strain juice from a dozen fresh or thawed frozen raspberries
Pink	Currants	Blend handful of currants in a blender and add directly
Blue/purple	Blueberries	Mash and strain juice from a dozen fresh or thawed frozen blueberries
Dark pink	Blackberries	Mash and strain juice from a dozen fresh or thawed frozen blackberries
Pale green	Avocado	1/4 avocado mashed and added directly
Green	Kale	2 tsp kale juice (make with juicer)
Brown	Chocolate	Cocoa powder to desired shade of brown	Add small quantities of milk or brewed coffee to get to desired consistency
Brown	Coffee powder	Coffee powder to desired shade of brown	Add small quantities of milk or brewed coffee to get to desired consistency

I hope these recipes offer some fun inspiration for getting crafty with your little one!

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Garden Soup — Bailey finds a way to help momma Katy (from Muse of a Daffodil) in the garden.
• This One Time, I Tried To Make a Car — Ashley at Domestic Chaos tries once again to make something crafty from stuff around the house.
• Pin-tastic creative ideas — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud shares how Pinterest is inspiring creativity in her family this summer.
• Baby Hiccups In The Womb — Alinka at Baby Web shares one of the ways she bonds with her unborn baby.
• Turtle Mosaics — Lyndsay at ourfeminist{play}school and her little family spend a quiet hour making a turtle mosaic inspired by the work of Melanie Mikecz.
• Edible Art Plus 8 Art Supply Recipes — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares some natural, chemical-free art supply alternatives, which are gauranteed to be tons of fun for children of all ages. They taste great too!
• A surprise art lesson — Tat at Mum in search has been taking art lessons from her 5-year-old son.
• Memory Creation — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen talks about how her family aims to create as many memories as they can as a family.
• A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words — Melissa at Momma Beer tries to replace cars with crafts.
• My Creative Family: Sometimes Messy, Always Fun — Emily at S.A.H.M i AM embraces the messes that sometimes accompany creative play but admits you don’t always have to get dirty to have fun.
• Fun Family Learning: Constellation Cave Tutorial — Abbie at Farmer’s Daughter gives step-by-step instructions for building a fun new twist on a cardboard box playhouse.
• Cooking… Kind Of — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings makes pizza with her daughter, hoping to inspire a love of cooking and encourage a bigger interest in food. As well as making mess and having lots of fun, of course!
• Crockpot Refried Beans — That Mama Gretchen‘s family loves to experiment with new recipes, and today she’s sharing a kitchen success!
• Creating Memories — Andrea at Tales of Goodness reflects on how the best creations can emerge from just letting kids be kids.
• Making Beautiful Things … And Sometimes Just Average-Looking Ones — Tamara at Tea for Three looks for ways to add more craft and creativity into every day family life.
• Making Fruit Leather Together — When Amy Willa at Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work took some time to involve her children in the process of finally trying a fruit leather recipe stored on her Pinterest food board, she got more than just a scrumptious homemade snack as a result!
• Making Glasses from Children’s Art — Mandy at Living Peacefuly with Children used her children’s artwork to make some very special glasses for her husband for Father’s Day.
• Preparing Family Meals Together — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares how she started the tradition of creating meals together with her children, which makes family gatherings more fun.
• It’s a trap! — Lauren at Hobo Mama shares the innovative snares her son and husband have set for her.
• How To Make The Most Of A Very Wet Summer — Luschka at Diary of a First Child shows us the first few weeks of the Summer Camp At Home project for keeping boredom at bay.
• Creating with… well, what do we have? — If necessity is the mother of invention, Momma Jorje thinks perhaps boredom is (or at least can be) the mother of creativity. In a pinch, she got creative with a household item to entertain herself and her toddler.
• Creating Joy! Felt Counting Fish and other Fun — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle started creating Felt Counting Fish and then fell down the rabbit hole of fun with a number of other games.
• I Am Going! (A Code Name: Mama Homemade Theater Production of Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie book) — This might be the finest example of child and baby acting ever recorded. Enjoy this Mo Willems treasure via video from Dionna at Code Name: Mama.
• DIY Summer Sleep Sack for Baby Tutorial — Shannon at GrowingSlower made an organic summer sleep sack for baby, and you can too with her easy tutorial.
• Chalk It Up! — Amy at Anktangle recounts how an impulse buy has turned into a fun collaborative activity that she hopes will continue to foster creativity in the whole family.
• The Family Garden — Excited that her son has been a big help in the garden this year, Ana at Pandamoly shares how her garden grows and offers up some secrets on how a toddler can be a great assistant in the garden.
• Getting my craft on — In a guest post at Natural Parents Network, Jona at Life, Intertwined takes a trip down memory lane — and finds it in stitches.
• Easy DIY Sandpit for Toddler Play — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares her easy DIY toddler sandpit tutorial.
• Building Without Nails — Laura at Laura’s Blog builds a swinging bar using just sticks and twine.
• Family Talent Show — Erika at Cinco de Mommy holds an after-dinner family talent show.
• Ar matey! Fun and Learning with Pirate Play. — Positive Parenting Connection is sharing lots of really fun Pirate-themed learning activities for the whole family.