DIY Air Dry Clay Rainbows

We love all of the creative rainbow-making going around right now and DIY Air Dry Clay is a super fun way to get in on the colorful action. Using a few simple household items and our Kid Made Modern Washable Paints, you can craft all kinds of rainbows to leave around your neighborhood, give to friends and family, or just display in your own house.

Materials:

- KMM Washable Paints

- baking soda (any brand)

- corn starch (any brand)

- water

- non-stick pot

- rolling pin or bottle

- butter knife

- straw (optional)

Steps:

1. Make clay -- mix 2 cups baking soda, 1 cup corn starch, and 1 1/4 cups water in a non-stick pot and stir until smooth. With an adult's help, cook the mixture over medium to low heat until it thickens. Remove from heat and let cool while covered.

2. Create rainbows -- roll out the clay to about 1/4" - 1/2" thickness and then use a butter knife to cut rainbow shapes. You can also try rolling out small ropes and pressing them together into a rainbow shape, but this gets more difficult as the clay dries and crumbles. If you find the clay getting too dry for either approach, simply wet your hands a bit and roll a small amount into a ball, wetting it as you go. You can also smooth any cracks in your rainbows by lightly running a wet fingertip over them, but we also like the organic look too. They don't need to be perfect!

If you'd like to be able to hang your rainbows, use a straw to carefully poke a hole through the top middle of the rainbow -- you can run yarn or string through here after they dry to hang.

Let these air dry over 1 - 2 days. You can speed up this process by heating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (with an adult's help), turning the heat off, and letting the rainbows sit on a baking sheet inside the warm oven.

3. Paint! -- once your rainbows have dried, use our washable paints to add color. Let the paint dry and then spread the colorful love!