Ice Painting - another cooling outdoor activity

It is hot and my son wants to play outside; we set up the pool, slip-n-slide and filled the water guns but he wants to do more. I made ice paint earlier in the week so it seemed like the perfect thing to bring out.

My ice paint was simply, washable tempera* paint mixed with water then frozen. You could use ice cube trays or in my case I used my silicone Beaba baby food storage trays. I am sure you could also just add food coloring to water if you don’t have any tempera paint but it may stain. Make sure to use NON-TOXIC paint, if your child is anything like mine, the ice is sure to get licked or sucked and even used all over their body at some point during the use.


Each of the wells in my tray holds 2 oz. or 1/4 cup, so I added 1 tablespoon paint then filled it with water (leaving a little room at the top) and carefully mixed to combine. It is OK if some of the paint settles; it will just make for a more vibrant color when painting.

Lay out paper, and go at it. My son enjoyed rolling the paint across the paper. I would recommend finger paint paper or something thicker than just regular printing paper. Since the paint is mostly water the paper will get soggy pretty quick. I had a piece of mylar that I put out, the water puddled up instead of leaking through, which also made for some splashing. When you are finished, and if there is any paint left, simply refreeze to use later.

Beaba Baby Food Freezer Mold