How to Make Puffy Paint

Making puffy paint can be an excellent craft for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Using puffy paint can help improve motor skills and serve as a fantastic sensory experiment by providing an array of textures and colors. 

At Stephen's Place, we absolutely love to experiment with our arts and crafts. One of our favorite things to do is to try different art mediums. We've painted with salt, bubble wrap, glitter, clothes dyes, leaves, and much more! One of our favorite art art mediums is puffy paint!

Puffy paint is so easy to make and extraordinarily gratifying to use. Puffy paint teaches artists to work with different textures and to see how those different textures change patterns and play-out on the page. It's as much of a sensory activity as it is a science experiment as it is a fun art project. To get started, please follow the instructions below on how to make puffy paint!

Puffy Paint Recipe:

• Shaving Cream
• Elmer’s School Glue
• Food Coloring
• Paint brushes
• Small Bowls 
• Pieces of Paper to Paint on

Instructions: How to Make Puffy Paint

1. Combine shaving cream and white glue on a one-to-one ratio until you get a texture you like.
2. Separate your shaving cream and white glue mixture into as many bowls as you would like puffy paint colors.
3. Add 10-15 drops of food coloring to each of your bowls.
4.  Although  your puffy paint will get darker as it dries, you’ll usually have a pastel range of colors.
5. Give each of your bowls a good stir. 

Now that you have your puffy paint, you can make whatever design you would like with it. Check below for more handpicked arts and crafts for adults with special needs.

About Stephen’s Place

Stephen’s Place is an independent apartment community for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, located in Vancouver, WA (7 minutes from Portland, OR).

If you have a loved one with developmental or intellectual disabilities who is looking for a community to live in, please contact us for more information. 

Stephen’s Place is a private-pay apartment community due to our state-of-the-art amenities and programs. We are a nonprofit and do not profit from our community. We are private pay because we spend more than some housing communities to ensure that our residents are comfortable and can safely live their lives with independence and dignity.