Strawberry paint is exactly what it sounds like — homemade paint made with fresh strawberries for an awesome nature craft, kids activities, or teen art projects! My budding artist was testing out nature paint ingredients one day and came up with two art ideas she loved: DIY paints made from dandelions and painting with strawberry paint she made on her own.
How To Make Strawberry Paint
DIY Strawberry Paint Craft Supplies & Materials:
To make your own fruit paint with strawberries, you’ll need:
- Fresh strawberries (the riper the strawberry, the better!)
- Mortar and pestle*
- 1/4 cup hot water (more or less, as needed, you probably won’t use all of this)
- Watercolor paper for painting (watercolor papers like this are thicker than regular paper and better for this type of art project)
- Paint brushes
- Paper towels / baby wipes (to clean off hands)
- Art aprons / art smocks / table cover (optional, but might stain clothing if you get it on skin, clothing, or cloth)
About Making Paint With Mortar and Pestle
My daughter loves making paint with natural materials using a mortar and pestle because she says it helps control the paint colors that you get when you’re DIY-ing paint. (And, it’s just FUN.)
She likes it better than just putting the foods or natural items in a food processor or blender. But, to be honest, you could do that too for this strawberry paint.
(But, it’s super fun to smash up your items in a mortar and pestle and kids always love that part!)
We use a heavy mortar and pestle (we have this one), but you can also use a heavy rock in a tin pie pan or in a bowl that you don’t care about scratching up.
My daughter also asked for a lighter, smaller mortar and pestle that she could throw in her art bag and make paint whenever she’s out on a nature walk or traveling. I got her this one for that (it’s the one you see in the pictures here).
Although it’s a lot smaller, it works well for travel art materials and was great for making strawberry watercolor paint!
Homemade Strawberry Paint Step-By-Step Directions
I really think this is a fun craft for kids of all ages and a fun project for adults! I’m not an artist, but there was something about using natural ingredients and making your own paint that made it feel less intimidating to me (and it really doesn’t matter what you paint with it!).
Step 1: Pick Your Strawberries
For this art project, you want to use ripe strawberries.
(Like I said at the beginning of the craft instructions, the over ripe strawberries work great!)
Remove the green tops and only use the red part of the strawberry to preserve the color and make it a more vibrant red.
If you are using a smaller mortar and pestle, you will need to cut your strawberries in quarters or pieces.
Otherwise, you can leave them whole.
Step 2: Crush The Strawberries
Place 1-2 large, ripe strawberries or several strawberry slices or the amount that fits into your mortar (the bowl part).
Gently but firmly crush and mash the strawberries into a pulp using the pestle (the little club part of the set).
You’re looking to release the juice from the strawberry and also crush up the strawberry into as fine of a liquid as you can.
(Don’t worry if it seems thick. We can add water later.)
Continue to do this with a few more strawberries until you get a crushed strawberry pulp and liquid strawberry juice.
It may not sound like it, but crushing the strawberries with a mortar and pestle is a lot of fun!
CRAFT TIP: This can be a messy part of the activity if you are doing this art project with younger kids or for a large group kids activity. You definitely want to use art smocks to protect clothing. I also recommend doing this craft outside on a picnic table or a covered table where it won’t matter if it’s a messy craft!
TRY THIS NATURE CRAFT NEXT: HOW TO MAKE PAINT FROM DANDELIONS
Step 3: Add Water To The Strawberry Pulp, If Needed
If your strawberries aren’t very ripe or you don’t have a small amount of strawberry juice after mashing them, add a little bit of hot water and mix together with the fruit pulp.
And, I’m talking A LITTLE BIT OF HOT WATER, like 1/2 to 1 teaspoon to start.
Remember: any water you add can dilute the color of your strawberries paint, so add a little and then stir to see if you have the color and consistency you want for painting.
IMPORTANT CRAFT TIP: You will NOT get a ton of liquid, so resist the urge to keep adding water. Remember, the more water that you add, the more the red colors will be diluted.
If needed, you can continue to add more strawberries. Just be sure to smash and grind them completely before adding more hot water (if needed).
You want a runny paint, but with deeper colors.
Also remember, your straw berry paint will often dry a little lighter than it looks in the bowl or when you first paint it on. So, keep that in mind.
This strawberry paint will be a light paint!
My daughter let her strawberry painting dry and then added in marker outlines and other colors and it turned out really cool in her nature journal!
Step 4: Let The Strawberry Paint Sit
Letting your strawberry paint sit for at least 20 minutes may be one of the most important steps!
This will help your colors become more vibrant and deeper.
CRAFT TIP: If you can, cover the strawberry paint and place in the refrigerator overnight to allow the color to steep.
You can even create your own strawberry paint color chart where you paint a stripe of paint and put the time under it (at 10 minutes, at 20 minutes, overnight, etc.) so you can see the differences. It will also help when you make this paint again.
Step 5: Paint With Strawberry Paint!
After 20 minutes, stick a paintbrush into the strawberry paint and test the color on paper.
If it’s too light or you want a different color let it sit longer and re-test at 10 minute increments.
When you’re ready, paint away!
CRAFT TIP: You could also try making this a strawberry spray paint by putting it into small spray bottles like this. We didn’t try it this time, but we’re going to next time with this paint from strawberries and also the paint from dandelions. I’ll post back here when we do!
ALSO TRY THIS EASY NATURE CRAFT FOR PRESCHOOL AND UP!
I know my daughter would love to hear about your art projects with homemade paints.
Let me know what you think about the strawberry paint!
