Trying homemade milk powder paint on outdoor objects

I have been planning to paint our vegetable raised beds with some colourful paint for well over a year.  Most activities I need to be able to do in small doses with Luath alongside so any proper outdoor paint is not toddler friendly.  I had seen a homemade paint recipe using milk powder paint and I was going to try it one day, then I thought why not try it outdoors.

I mixed up one batch.  The ratio is 1:1 of milk powder and water, and add food colouring.  You need to give it a good mix to get rid of the lumps.

We painted one side of a vegetable bed and it worked great.  It didn’t give a full colour but I like the distressed look.  I am sure a second coat would give a better cover.  Luath added some paint to a few other of the beds.

The next day I made up four other colours.  We have different types of food colouring.  The paste worked best, with liquid you need to reduce the amount of water and the squeeze tube didn’t work to well.  I added salt to one batch to see if it would sparkle as homemade paint with flour and salt we made does (so far it doesn’t seem to).

Luath was very keen to paint again.  She did wander around the area with a brush, dropping some and dabbing wood.  She also did some water painting (I had a tub of water to clean the brushes with).  It was relaxing to be able to let her explore freely knowing that the paint was safe for her and the wildlife – we both had on our messy play clothes. We painted one vegetable bed side and had just started to decorate the green side we had done the day before when Luath needed the toilet. 

After our break Luath wanted to stay on the patio.  I thought we could try painting some of our flower pots.  Luath did a little painting with a small brush.

I finished by painting the legs of our bird table with pink and purple. 
 
I had to move the bird table onto our table to dry as the dog started licking the paint.
   
I am not sure how well the paint will stand up outdoors especially as we get a lot of rain.  It has rained over the past few days and so far the pink colour is disappearing (made with liquid food colouring) but the other paint remains.  Even if it all washes away it was a fun activity.

(Luath is 25 months)
 
Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations and Tuesday tots via Rainy Day mum