My daughter recently used up the last of her watercolor paint palette, and as I went to throw the plastic tray away I paused and questioned if it would be possible to refill it. Sure enough, Martha Stewart had the answer: my daughter and I followed this homemade Watercolor Paint tutorial to make various colors of paint, then carefully spooned some of each color into the empty paint palette to refill the compartments.

The homemade paint is a little chalkier than the original watercolor paint that came in the tray and took a little more water to spread evenly, but still worked nicely! My daughter really enjoyed painting with paint she’d helped make. Because it applied a little thicker, the homemade paint got used up more quickly than the original watercolors. Next time I do this I will probably use a different container to make larger paint pucks.

Now, to figure out how to refill empty glue sticks!