A colleague of mine at work used condensed milk with food colouring for a painting activity. I tried it with my toddler group and it was great.
The texture is sticky and goopy!! There is nothing to drip off the brush and it leaves behind a shiny, glossy picture.
Just pour the milk in ice cube trays and add drops of food colouring in the separate compartments.
I adore this idea. I am featuring it now!
This seems like a very clever craft — but will the condensed milk ever dry?
It can take a few days, but it does dry.
If the children want to keep the pictures, I suggest you put them in a frame sooner rather than later, because the page does tend to buckle a bit as it dries.
super fun activity! I shared it here: http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/09/paint-with-condensed-milk/
This is such a fun project! The kids are doing it now & are having a blast! We used the food dye part as a learning experience. Thanks for the great idea! 🙂
This looks like fun, but won’t this attract ants? Even after it dries, the sugar content will remain.
Thank you
I can’t wait to try this with my kids!!!
Does it smell?
You can freeze the trays and reuse the milk paint another day.
you can also use evaporated milk and food coloring its like paint with water colors and when it drys it shines and it keeps for about 3weeks in the frig
great idea ! but are ants attracted to the sweetness ??? thanks
What about spraying it with starch after it dries? Would that help preserve it?
Yes starch will work just fine
I just found a nice article and pics of happy kids trying this craft out: http://thechaosandtheclutter.com/archives/1003
It will dry and it does so quite quickly, depending on how much paint your child uses. I painted a picture along with my 3 year old and mine dried in less then an hour, hers took about 2 hours since she got hers a little bit thicker.
I gave it a try and my little girl just LOVED it!
Thanks so much!
http://funwithbirbir.blogspot.com/2012/03/birbir-painting-with-condensed-milk.html
I tried this and it was ridiculously easy and tons of fun.
If you don’t know what to do with the left overs, a popular treat where I live is to put condensed milk on buttered toast. Might be fun for the kids to have “rainbow” colors instead of boring old white.
I would think that if you used a blow dryer to help with the drying if it took a long time. It also will depend on how much paint they used on the paper
I think we’ll try this and once the paint dries, I will put clear contact paper over it.
What an awesome idea….I shared this on an examiner.com site for a summer craft idea. I wanna try this now!
Thank you!
The colors and shine are beautiful! I think butterflies would be especially gorgeous!
This is genius! I think my 3YO and I will be painting this afternoon. Thank you very much for sharing! 🙂
I’ve been doing this craft since I was a kid, But we always used it on sugar cookies. same recipe but paint on uncooked cookie cut outs, then bake as normal, gives cookies a nice colored finish without being super sweet like frosting. the colors will look a little dull on the dough but after you bake the colors pop.
I just did this with my 3 and 5 year olds. They LOVED it!
I am assuming and hoping that u can use evaporated milk instead of condensed milk…will find out a little bit later as I am definitely doing this w my two toddler boys tonight, thanks for posting! love it! Have been looking for a painting method that would be safe for my younger son that is very messy and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth 🙂 hehe
Please let me know how it turns out. I am glad you like the activity. I have other toddler safe posts for you on the website as well.
I made it with evaporated milk instead….my three kids ages 5, 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 loved it!!! The colors are more muted but beautiful just the same.
This looks like great fun! I would like to post a link to it as I am rebuilding my website and adding a “fun stuff” page with art projects for kids. If you’d prefer I don’t add a link please let me know. Thanks!
I made this paint with my 2 year old and we both loved it. I loved how vibrant the colors were and how shiny the paint stayed when dried. The colors mixed beautifully instead of turning a muddy brownish green as most of my toddlers mixing experiments do. However, a few days after small dots started to appear on the paint, what I assumed was mold. Every day more and more spots appeared until the painting was covered. They weren’t fuzzy like typical mold I’ve seen but the growth and circular patterned reminded me of it. You could still see the coors but the shine was gone. I’m still not sure what it was but it bummed me out. I was about to suggest this painting method to my preschool but I don’t want to send the kids home with moldy artwork. Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on what it was? Thanks!
This is milk-based and therefore will eventually get mold unless put in an airless frame soon after drying. This painting activity is a good experience, not really one meant to last!! Glad your child enjoyed it.
Looks like a great idea but no one has answered the question…will this attract bugs? I’d love to try this but am living in a very anti-bug household. An answer from anyone who has done this would be greatly appreciated.
I view this activity as a disposable one; I have never kept them very long unless I put them in a frame.
This si so cute. I am about to try it now:)
Answer to Anna:
I’ve used hairspray in my classroom on edible crafts and it kept ants and other bugs away.
You can also use this on foam sheets. It is a much more presentable look. It looks like true are. I just stick them up with double sided removable stickies.
I meant to say true art.:)
A great alternative to corn syrup and food coloring which can melt and run. Thanks for the idea.
Love this, can’t wait to try with my daycare kids! I’ve used clear hair gel (from the Dollar Store) mixed with food coloring and glitter and it has a very shiny finish as well, without the mold and insect problems. It’s just not edible for any younger ones.
Do you suppose this will dry if I use it on plexiglass? Thought I’d do it for Valentines day and hang them in my office window! Thanks
@Connie: Yes it will dry, you have to make sure that it lies flat or it will drip badly. You can also use hairspray to fix it.
Thanks for the idea of using icecube trays! I am going to work on this for a post for a blog at http://www.plumcrazylife.com
!!
Sounds fun! I will try it with my little boy 🙂
The fact that it doesn’t last is actually good. You can always photograph them, but even better, you can make it a “habit”. Let the kids know that they’re not going to last and that when they begin to turn, you’ll have another painting day. That will encourage creativity and independent thought. Knowing it won’t last and that they will be painting again, they will put some thought into what they want to do which will encourage critical thought, creativity AND develop artistic skills.
Plus – it is good to give them the experience of change and growth and NOT clinging to old things.