Jelly Bean Sensory Paints

So whats a mom to do with a bag of jelly beans? Eat them, give them away, or why not make sensory paints!

For Valentines Day we made Conversation Heart Sensory Paints. It was a big hit with the kids. I wanted to make them some more sensory paints for Easter. After much thought I decided to try candy paints again. This time with Jelly Beans! Now to read and see how they turned out, or did they?

Jelly Bean Sensory Paints

Before making our Sensory Paints we first did a jelly bean science experiment. Read more about that here. This tells you what we did in the first few steps to making our paints.

Once we finished our experiment. We moved on to paint making, which in itself was really another experiment. We had no idea if it would work starting out.

Final result of our Jelly Bean Sensory Paints above. We were a little disappointed that the smell was not very strong. We observed that the grape had the strongest scent.

We even made Bunny Tail Paint Brushes to paint with. Simple really. Just take clothespins and white pom poms (thanks craftprojectideas for the pom poms) and put them together.

I set the kids up with paper plate paint trays. I did this for a reason. Give them only a small amount of paints to contain the mess. Do not get me wrong. We like to make a mess, and it is usually fun when we do, but some days I can do without the extra clean up. This was one of those days.

trying to see if the paint had a scent

I had small poster boards I taped to the table. The wind was blowing and this held them in place.

Now it was time to paint!

Big brother asked me if I had put sand in the paints. I was a little confused at first and responded no. I then asked him why. He told me to come and look closer at the painting. When I did, I noticed what he was talking about. The Jelly Bean Paint was textured. We concluded that the candy coating or sugar in the candy must have given the paints a sand like texture. Not really sure but it sounded good.

Even mommy got in there at the end and painted a little. Yes, I am a big kid at heart.

This was an open ended process art painting. I gave the kids the supplies and they took over and created their own art the way they wanted to. The Sensory paints we made added fun sight, touch, smell, and taste if you wanted. These paints are safe for babies too.

So how do you make jelly bean paints? We used jelly beans, water, flour (could substitute rice cereal), and food coloring to enhance the colors.

Since we started the paints with a science investigation we already had the first step done. Soak jelly beans in water. Once the jelly beans had soaked a few hours we moved on to making our paints.

We took the dyed and scented water from the experiment and used them in our paints. I added about 1/3 c or so of flour to each bowl of water. We had 2 different size bowls and this was why some needed more flour. Mix them together until you get a semi thick consistency. The runny ones did not paint as well as the thick ones we made.

After adding the flour I added a little food coloring to brighten the colors of the paints.

Since the scent faded after adding the flour you could add scented extracts to bring the scent back but we did not. The fact that we all have stuffy noses may not have helped us decide how scented they were. The pollen is out over here and spring is in the air.

This was such a fun activity for us. We got to watch as we turned candy into paints and then paint with them in the end. The perfect way to spend an afternoon with my kids. We hope you and your kids can have fun with this too.

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About The Author

Jaime

Hi! I am Jaime, mama to three high energy boys. With three boys, life never slows down, but I wouldn't have it any other way! We love creating, learning, and crafting together and we can turn anything into an adventure.

Latest Comments

Cassie

Looks like fun! And a great way to use up those extra jelly beans.

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Amanda Vasquez

I love how you made bunny tails to paint with!!!

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Susanne Remic

Oh what a super idea! I love this- have pinned to do this weekend 🙂
x

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My Little 3 and Me

What a fun idea. I’d love to try it…just need to stop eating all the jelly beans first tee hee. 😉

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Tracy Garbett

What a fun idea. We have loads of left over sweets from Easter. Will try this tomorrow xx

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