Best Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe that Really Works (2024)

I set out to find or create the best homemade puffy paint recipeand had great results after developing my own.

As I looked at homemade puffy paint recipes, I saw a variety of outcomes but didn’t loved the finished product.

After trying a number of DIY puffy paint recipes on the web, I was unsatisfied with the results. Therefore, I set out to create what I believe to be the best.

I will teach you how to make DIY puffy paint recipe that really works.

The Best Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe that Really Works – Materials Needed

• 3/4 cup shaving cream
• 1/4 cup white glue– We used Elmer’s School Glue (If the consistency isn’t what you’d like you can add up to 1/8 cup more glue…see notes below)
• 1/4 cup flour
• Food Coloring

Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Make the Best DIY Puffy Paints

1. Mix all ingredients together until completely combined.
2. Putting your puffy paints in a squeeze bottle works very well to help keep the puffy look. You can also use paint brushes for just a thicker consistency and texture.

This recipe dries in the air. You will want to use Plastic Squeeze Bottles for this activity.

You will find the puffy paint ingredients easy to find and affordable to buy.

Note: See video tutorial at the bottom of this post if you are a visual learner.

Best Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe that Really Works – Reader Tips

Reader Tip: One woman (see comments below) said the order in which you add things is extremely important. Please mix in order listed. She suggested adding the shaving cream and glue and then adding flour a bit at a time until you get the consistency desired.

Reader Tip:A suggestion on getting the stuff into the containers: Spoon it in a Quart size zip lock and close. Then cut a small hole on the corner of the zip lock then squeeze the stuff into the containers. You can also use the zip locks as your tool to squeeze paint if you do not have a squeeze bottle. Just cut the hole in the corner very small.

Reader Tip: While I have made this multiple times just using 1/4 cup of glue, one reader noted that by adding a bit more (maybe 1/8 cup) she was able to get the consistency she desired.

Best DIY Puffy Paint Recipe – The Process of Trying and Creating Recipes

Let me show you the process of how I ended up making my own recipe, which became my personal favorite. I’ll show you the results of each test recipe, and you can decide which result you like the best in terms of puff and texture.

Let me clarify that this IS NOT the recipe that you put in the microwave. If you want to see that recipe, I encourage you to click back to see our microwave puffy paint project.

I am lucky to have little helpers in the kitchen to aid me in mixing up my concoctions.

Kids love to mix and pour. I always encourage you to get your kids involved in every step of the process.

I know too well that this can feel more chaotic. However, now having kids that can bake on their own is super encouraging.

Warning: If you raise kids to make things like inexpensive homemade DIY puffy paints, marbled paper made with shaving creamand Borax-free gak, you might end up with highly creative kids that have big ideas all…the…time. Expect some beautiful chaos in your home.

Above you notice I tried four different recipes. Which one is your favorite?

You can see all of the recipes above, but I’ve provided the written recipe for the pink color, since it was my preference. The texture was nice and it puffed up just perfect for me.

Does this Homemade Puffy Paint Recipe Really Work?

* Update: I had a few comments that this recipe was too thick for people. I wanted to try it again to see what was going wrong. I tried it again, and it worked for me.

Here are the exact details:

I used Barbasol Thick and Rich shaving cream, all purpose flour and Elmer’s school glue.

The picture above is of when I tried it again. I did the test, so it wasn’t originally kids trying to squeeze the bottle.

One reader has noted that she was more satisfied with the consistency by adding more glue…she estimated that she added 1/8 of a cup.

When my kids tried it a bit later, it was a little difficult for them to squeeze, something I didn’t experience the first time. I’m wondering if weather plays a part in how this responds.

I rectified this by adding water, 1 Tbsp total for me, and that made it very easy for my child to manipulate. However, the watered down one didn’t dry as firm if this is a keepsake.

I hope this is helpful! As suggested above, by one of my readers, it’s probably good to add a bit of flour at a time until you have reached the desired consistency.

I have shown you a close up of all the results so you can decide the consistency that works best for your project. Again, my favorite mixture was the pink mixture that I highlighted in my recipe for the best puffy paint.

We have a sweet friend we take care of once a week. She was able to join us for this project.

I love having projects for the kids to do when they have friends over. Sometimesthe kids are very self-entertaining, which is the fabulous part of having friends over to play.

However, sometimesthey seem to need a bit more direction, why it’s always good to have a few ideas up your sleeve.

I laid out my Dollar Store table cloth and the kids set to work.

The kids and I all did our own designs. Their results consisted of a lot of polka dots.

It was interesting and controlled they were and purposeful. They were very abstract with their designs, but they were not just squeezing it out with all their might like I sometimes see them do with toothpaste.

When Abby came home from school, she created her own design.

She had a different approach to the whole thing. She kept some of her painting puffy and wanted to take Q-Tips to some of the paint to bring on a different look.

Here are Abby’s results. It’s pretty clear that there were some puffy paint recipes that worked better than others. They were playing with the four different recipes here.

I had to get in on the fun and create my own artwork. This owl would do the trick, and it also really clearly shows why I liked the result of the pink DIY puffy paint the best.

The blue and yellow have air bubbles. The purple is my second favorite.

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