It seems like all the kids these days love their slime. You may be disgusted by it, but using slime in your crafts is a great way to engage kids who might not be interested in some of the other crafts you are trying. Some kids just like to make a mess.
You can make the slime yourself or buy it from the store, and then you can paint the slime for finger painting fun.
Making Your Own Slime
This can get a little messy, and you might feel like hiring a maid service to tidy up after you’re done, but your kids will have so much fun making their own slime and feel so accomplished afterwards.
The trick is to get the right consistency, which may not be as easy as it looks.
To make slime yourself, you can mix a cup of water and two cups of cornstarch. After these are combined, you may need to add in some extra water. Only add a little at a time.
If you did it correctly, the slime should have a somewhat liquid consistency. It ought to be squishy when you poke and prod it.
Dying the Slime
When your slime is ready, you can use watercolors or food dyes to color the slime. You probably want to use a paint that will wash off easily, and if you are concerned about kids putting the slime and paint in their mouths, then food dyes will be much safer.
The dye can be applied to the slime as you mix it up and prepare it, or you can let the kids dip their fingers in the slime and then dip their slimed fingers into the dyes. They will probably enjoy that second option more, but it will be a lot messier. The paints and dyes may be so mixed up at the end that they are no longer salvageable, so you can always set some smaller amounts of paint to the side for the kids to use rather than giving them the entire bottle of paint or dye.
Once the kids have painted slime on their fingers, they can finger paint as normal. You can let them paint on sheets of paper, canvas, paper bags, cardboard, or any other surface you have available. Just make sure that there is enough space for their fingers to paint on and choose a surface that is age appropriate. Smaller kids will do better with larger surfaces.
The slime and paint will wash right off the kids’ fingers, and it should wash out of their clothes easily enough.
Once the slime dries on the paper or other surface, it will start to crumble and fall apart. You can simply dust it off over a trash bin.
If it becomes an issue then you can consider hiring a cleaning company to help you clean up according to Hannah with NYCHouseCleaners.
The homemade slime is very fragile and won’t last for more than a few hours in most cases. If you want something more permanent, you can try store bought slime.
