Puffy Paint Recipe on Canvas Art

I’m sharing my favorite puffy paint recipe which only needs three ingredients! We painted it on a canvas, and it turned out so gorgeous. This recipe is so easy! We absolutely loved the process of making ours and then touching it after it dried.  Make sure to follow my important tip below to make it turn out the way ours did.

This puffy paint is so different from others because when it dries, it hardens a bit so you can gently touch it without wrecking the beautiful product.

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There are just 3 ingredients for my puffy paint recipe:

• Shaving Cream — Ours came from the dollar store
• Glue
• Paint

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In order to make this turn out so well, you need to follow these instructions carefully. Keep in mind that different climates and different brands of products can yield a slightly different result.

Make the puffy paint!

1. Mix one part glue with one part shaving cream. It’s easier to figure this out if you put the glue in first. We love to put ours in these squeeze bottles pictured above, which you can find on Amazon or at the grocery store. We have used plastic bags before, and while they are nice because you can just throw them out afterward, it’s a lot more difficult to paint with them.
2. Stir the glue and shaving cream with a craft stick (you can just toss it when you’re all done). Add some paint until you get the desired color and stir.
3. This is my most important tip! Let the paint set for several hours, preferably overnight. You want the shaving cream to be “deflated,” and the amount will shrink drastically. A little goes a long way though.
4. Make a beautiful picture on cardboard, a canvas, or any other firm piece of paper. I don’t recommend printer paper or construction paper.  Encourage the kiddos to keep the paint away from the edges. We learned this the hard way! You can add glitter at this point too.
5. Allow the picture to dry overnight. You want the surface it’s on to be as flat as possible.

If you are unable to use a recipe with shaving cream, here are some great microwave puffy paint recipes from Fun at Home With Kids.

When the paint was all dried, this was our gorgeous end result! All in all, it was a perfect puffy paint activity, and we will be hanging these on our walls soon!

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Katie T. Christiansen

Creator at Preschool Inspirations

Katie has spent 17 combined years in the Early Childhood field as a teacher, preschool owner, and educational writer. She has worked in profit and non-profit programs, high-risk schools, and started an in-home preschool and outdoor collaborative preschool program. She adores being a mom to three children, and her youngest is currently in preschool.

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