Art and Paints

When we can, I prefer to use children’s safe stamp pads. I use the Creatology Jumbo Stamp Pads. I bought mine in the children’s section at Michaels. The only downside to the stamp pads is they only offer them in a few colors, black, blue, red, green and a rainbow wheel. I find it easier to stamp her hand or foot rather than to paint it with a paintbrush. The paintbrush can tickle their feet and cause their fingers and toes to curl up while the stamp pads get their hands in a flat, spread out position, ready to be placed on paper.

Creatology Jumbo Stamp Pads

When I need a color other than the ones I have stamp pads for, I use children’s washable finger-paints. I have two different kinds of finger-paints I use. One I use for hand and footprint art and another, more watery one, I use when I let her finger-paint by herself (which I will post more about later).

I use Crayolas washable finger-paint to do her hand and footprints as it is slightly thicker and sticks better to paper. These paints mix well together and are offered in many colors.

Crayola Washable Finger Paints

For finger-painting I use these non-toxic, washable tempura paints. These are great for squirting onto paper or canvas and letting the little one use her hands to spread it around. It is thinner than Crayola and therefore, easier to spread, but has a slightly more sheen texture than Crayola.

Washable Tempura Paint

I do also have a recipe I use for edible finger-painting, but I will post that later on.

For finger-painting I like to use watercolor paper. It is thick and will not bunch up or rip if the little one uses too much paint or rubs too hard. This paper comes in almost every size and is relatively inexpensive. I bought a large pad of watercolor paper at Michaels for less than $15.

For hand and footprint art I usually do it on white computer paper and then glue construction paper behind it so it wont wrinkle. Sometimes I paint right onto construction paper which also works just fine.

For other, bigger projects that I plan on hanging on the wall, I use canvas. Again, I buy these at Michaels. They sell these singular or in packs of 2,3,5, and 7.

I always keep baby wipes nearby when we paint. They wipe the paint and the stamp ink off very easily and quickly so she doesn’t get paint on everything on the way to the bathtub or sink.

Generally, when we do art, I will have her sit in her highchair. Instead of stamping her foot onto paper, and trying to hold her up to do so, I press the paper onto her feet while she is sitting (you will need something hard underneath the paper, I usually just use the stamp pad). For finger-painting I tape paper to her high chair and let her paint, or if it is nice out we will go sit outside to paint.