Let’s make non-toxic homemade finger paint for toddlers! This homemade finger paint recipe for toddlers is non-toxic, making it safe for even the littlest fingers. You can make your DIY finger paint any color you like and it will make for hours of messy art fun at home or in the classroom.

What paint is safe for finger painting for kids?

One of my favorite things about making your own finger paint is that you know what ingredients you are putting in it. Our finger paint recipe is non toxic and is a great way to get kids helping in the kitchen. If a young child has a tendency to put their fingers in their mouth you know that they are not ingesting chemicals or anything that is not food grade.

Making homemade paint is a great chance to talk about colors, including how to make new colors by mixing primary colors together.

Homemade Finger Paint Recipe

We are going to combine basic pantry ingredients (that you probably already have) together to make homemade finger paint.

Ingredients for homemade finger paint

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups cold water
• food dye in assorted colors
• containers (with lids)
• popsicle sticks (spoons, or skewers) for stirring

Instructions for making finger paint Recipe

Step 1

In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together. Cook over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes. It’s very important that you keep stirring the finger paint mixture until the moment that it turns from thin – to thick.

Once the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove immediately, and let the mixture cool.

Step 2

Spoon the mixture into your jars (or containers), and then add food dye. Remember, less is more when it comes to adding color. You can always add more if you want more vibrant colors, but you can’t take it away if your colors are much darker than you wanted.

Step 3

Stir your colors together. You can experiment by adding different colors together to make fun new colors. This is a great way to teach toddlers about primary and secondary colors.

Mixing tip: To make colors such as red and black you will need to add a lot of food dye. Red will start off as pink, and black will start off as grey.

Our finished homemade finger paint FOR TODDLERS

How do you store homemade finger paint?

I used empty vegetable baby food jars to put the finger paint in. I recommend them because they come with lids making them great for storage.

Finger paint will keep in an airtight container for about 3 days. After that, the mixture will start to harden. Then it’s time to whip up another batch!

More homemade paint recipes

• 15 easy and fun homemade paint recipes
• Homemade window paint for kids that peels right off once dry
• This homemade shaving cream paint is so much fun to play with
• Kids will actually want to have a bath with this homemade bathtub paint
• Make your own paintable chalk
• This homemade scratch and sniff paint is so cool
• Come try this shaving cream art!

looking for something a little less messy? here are some easy cut and paste activities for toddlers! 

Have you made homemade finger paint for toddlers? Did they love creating messy art?

Here’s some advice on how to keep your toddler quiet in public places like church!