I made this paint palette this morning for a friend’s son, but wanted to share it with you here as I think it’s great craft for a range of ages!

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I love making toys for my little ones out of scraps. I love creating ways that the toys can have working features so that not only can my daughter have her own versions of everyday items for play, she can start to learn how they work safely before trying out the real thing. Her favourite items so far are her dishwasher and washing machine for example! It’s a bonus for me that I can give our recycling items a longer lease of life, although my husband does find it hard to navigate the accumulating piles of empties!

Here is a very simple paint palette that you can make at home using a sheet of cardboard and an egg box.

Materials:

Sheet of cardboard
Egg box
Scalpel/ Stanley knife/scissors
Pencil

Method:

1. Cut your sheet of cardboard into a palette shape.
2. Cut your egg carton up into segments, following the lines of the cartons.
3. Lay out your carton segments on your palette, spacing them out nicely. I used 5 of the 6 segments for my paint palette but you can use however many you like depending on the size of your palette and the desires of your little artist!
4. Draw a circle for your finger hole in pencil. Tip! For perfect circle, draw around a coin.
5. Draw around your carton segments in pencil. Tip! Draw closely around the bottom of the segment because it is smaller than the diameter at the top! This is important as you want your segment to sit inside the palette nicely and not fall through.
6. Cut out your circles leaving holes for the carton segments to sit in. I used my scalpel for this, on top of a cutting mat so as to protect the table. Don’t worry if you don’t have one because scissors work just fine or a Stanley knife on top of another piece of cardboard.The neatness of your cut out circles really doesn’t matter as they are hardly seen.
7. Poke your egg cartons through! If your circles are too big, don’t worry. Fan out the tops of your cartons so that they sit snugly.
8. Using your scalpel or scissors also cut out the hole for your finger.
9. Your paint palette is now ready!

Here’s how you can use this for varying ages:

For little ones – let them put together and take apart their paint palette. For some ‘mess free painting’ you can cut out circles of coloured packets you find around the house. Practice their colours with them by asking them to add their ‘paints’ to their palettes. We also cut out lots of different coloured circles so that we could ‘sort out paint colours’ (alongside fine motor skill practice)!

For bigger ones- make this together as a fun crafting activity!

For even bigger ones – show them this page and let them make their palette themselves, exercising their own artistic licence!

I’d love to see your own creations so please do share photos if you make this at home!

Sydney x

P.S. For more learning through creating, check out this gorgeous creation of Mari’s!