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This Marshmallow Paint started out of desperation and ended up being an amazingly fun, colorful, educational, and EDIBLE paint that we will use for years to come. Do you ever end up making something and thinking to yourself, “Self, this is really COOL!”? Well, that happened to me just the other day. Can you believe that this paint is actually made from real marshmallows? You probably already have the ingredients necessary. Add some water and your kids will be in awe!
Marshmallow Paint
The texture is smooth and soft, the colors are vibrant, and the pictures your kids create will be adorable. It is slightly sticky, but it is actually LESS sticky than you would think! No mom wants a disastrous sticky mess in her house (or am I alone on this one?). When the two magical ingredients are combined, you get a perfectly smooth paint that is ready to dip small brushes in. This is what it looked like when I was mixing up the red color.
The story of this marshmallow creation started when my kids told me that they wanted to paint. SHOOT! I didn’t have any paint and I really didn’t feel like going all the way to the craft store to buy some. So, I ran to the pantry (don’t ask me why) and peeked at what we had in stock. The idea just kind of came to me as I glanced at the bag of marshmallows sitting next to the light corn syrup. It was worth a try, right? The rest of the afternoon was a quiet day filled with several marshmallow-painted masterpieces. My kids were captivated!
Christmas cookies with Marshmallow paint
Edible Paint
We’ve even “painted” Christmas cookies with this recipe before. They turn out great! I recommend using this paint with kids 4 and up. This marshmallow paint is ideal for bigger kiddos that can handle a small watercolor paint brush and can paint a picture without getting the paint all over the table (ahhhhhh toddlers, gotta love ’em!).
While the paint is sticky, there is something about mixing the marshmallows with the corn syrup and water that causes the paint to not be as sticky as you might imagine! The consistency is perfect for dipping a small watercolor paintbrush into and painting an awesome colorful picture.
The paint is completely edible! Now, I wouldn’t recommend sticking a spoon into the paint and eating it that way (probably not a great idea), but if your kids happen to get a dab of paint on their hands, they can actually lick it off! Trust me, they will LOVE this! Who gets to eat paint? Our kids! We are the coolest moms haha! Once your kids are done painting, let their pictures completely dry (yup, it dries just like paint!).
The clean-up is also very simple. Wash the containers and the brushes with warm water and dish soap. That’s all! If there is any paint on the table, a wet and soapy sponge will wipe it away in seconds. So easy! So have a blast as we did! After you make marshmallow paint, you’ll never look at homemade paint the same way. Cheers to having FUN with your kids, creating memories, and learning at home!
More Crafts by Smart School House to Try Next:
-
Pretzel Wreaths
-
Mason Jar Snow Globe
-
Butter Flavor Sugar Cookies
-
Light Bulb Snowman
-
Snow Globe Cookies
Marshmallow Paint Recipe
Supplies
- Marshmallows
- Water
- Light Corn Syrup
- Food coloring
- Watercolor paint brushes
- Paper OR sugar cookies
Instructions
- Put 1 cup of mini marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and microwave them for 30 seconds. The marshmallows will expand (it’s really cool actually).
- Add 1/4 cup of water to the microwaved marshmallows. Stir the water into the marshmallows. The marshmallows will continue to melt.
- Put the mixture in the microwave again for 30 more seconds.
- Add 3 tablespoons of light corn syrup to the marshmallow water mixture and stir it in really well.
- Microwave it again for 30 seconds.
- Stir it together until the marshmallows have melted and mixed well with the corn syrup.
- Let it cool just a tad and then separate it into different containers
- Using a little food coloring, make whatever colors you desire! I used craft popsicle sticks to stir up our paint colors.
- Let the marshmallow paint cool for a minute or so before handing them off to your kids. Luckily, it cools quickly.
- Paint on paper or on cookies! This paint is totally edible so it is safe to eat. If you use it on paper, it will dry with the texture of puffy paint.
Notes
My daughter wants to use this recipe to frost cookings, great idea she had
I will actually be doing that in my book that comes out next year! Your daughter totally read my mind:)
Just tried this with my 3 year old helping and it worked great; didn’t have corn syrup so we subbed in maple, and we had coloured mnis and just added additional colour to make it brighter. Very fun idea….might even be possible to duplicate at camp over a campfire with Girl Guides (would just have to store it away because who needs coons raiding camp to eat paint…could you imagine?!)
I have been wanting to do a project where instead of water balloons I wanted to do paint balloons and take pictures. I was worried about using paint and now I see this I am curious if this could be a sager alternative.
I can use this for a VBS project! Thank for the creative idea 🙂
Love this! Do you think marshmallow cream would work? I have some in my cabinet in would love to get rid of!
I don’t know! But, it’s worth a try! Be sure to come back and tell us how it goes because I’m sure others have the same question:)
Awesome!! I am pinning this to use. What a great and fun idea!!
What a fun idea, Kelly! I’ve mixed flour and water and coloring or used cornstarch and made paint, but never thought to use marshmallows. My daughter would love this!
Great idea! Wouldn’t it be fun to paint cookies?
What a GREAT idea! In fact, we’ll do that today! My kids are going to love this…….
you have got to be the most creative person EVER!! what a fun idea
Thank you so much (blushing!)