How to Make Puffy Paint With Shaving Cream, Glue and Flour

Put 1 cup of all-purpose flour into a large mixing bowl. Pick a big bowl. Shaving cream takes up a lot of room and you want space to stir without it spilling over. Have your measuring cup, a sturdy spatula and the shaving cream close by. Kids love helping measure, so let them level off the flour.

Measure 3 cups of foaming shaving cream and add it to the flour. Press it into the cup to get a real cupful, then scoop it out with the spatula. The foam is what makes this paint puff, so use the classic foam kind from a can. Gel shaving creams do not hold the air the same way.

Add 1 cup of white school glue. Stir gently until there are no dry streaks of flour left and the mix looks like fluffy frosting. Fold rather than beat. Stirring too hard knocks the air out of the foam and you lose some of the puff. It should hold soft peaks on the spatula.

If you want more than white, spoon the mixture into smaller bowls, one for each color. Four or five colors is plenty for a rainbow. Keep one bowl white. White puffy paint is great for clouds, snow and outlines, and it looks bright on dark paper. Scrape the big bowl clean so nothing goes to waste.

Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl and stir until the color is even. Liquid watercolors work too and give brighter shades. Go slowly. You can always add another drop, but too much liquid makes the paint runny. Mix red and yellow for orange, or blue and red for purple, if you are short on colors.

Scoop each color into its own sandwich bag or piping bag. Push the paint down toward one corner and squeeze out as much air as you can. Seal a sandwich bag, or twist the top of a piping bag and close it with a twist tie or rubber band. Write the color on the bag if they look alike.

Cut a small hole at the corner of each bag with scissors. Start tiny. A small hole gives a thin, controlled line, and you can always cut it bigger. A hole that is too big lets the paint gush out in one blob. An adult should do the cutting for young children.

Cover your work surface with a tray or mat. Lay down a sheet of card stock or thick paper. Squeeze the bag gently from the top, the way you would a tube of toothpaste, and draw lines, swirls and dots. Bright colors pop against black card stock. Thin printer paper will wrinkle as the paint dries.

Lay one color right beside the next and the lines will join into a thick, raised design. A rainbow is a perfect first picture. Do one arch at a time, red on the outside, then work your way in. Little ones can press the puffy lines with a finger to feel how soft they are.

Keep adding details until you are happy with the picture. Fish, flowers, names and patterns all work well. Then set it flat somewhere safe and let it dry overnight. The paint firms up and puffs a little more as it dries but stays soft and squishy to the touch. Write the date on the back.