• 60 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Puff Paint Ideas

Three puff paint pictures per press, each with its colors, what it goes on and where to squeeze first.

Puff Paint Ideas

Show all 60
  1. A snowman of three puff blobs that shrink toward the top, with marker stick armsWhite on dark blue card. Squeeze the biggest blob first and let each one overlap the last. Add the face once it sets.
  2. An owl with rows of raised feather scallops on its chest and flat marker eyesBrown on cream card. Draw the owl and its eyes. Pipe scallops across the chest, bottom row first, each row lapping.
  3. A maze with raised walls, solved by finger instead of pencilOne color on card. Draw the way through in pencil first. Pipe a wall either side of it, then add dead ends.

Next step Winter scenes to paintStained glass designs to draw

All 60 ideas

Clouds, snow and foam 12

  • A bathtub of bubbles: overlapping white blobs hiding all but a duck's head White and yellow on pale card. Draw the tub in marker. Heap blobs above its rim and dot one yellow head among them.
  • A brown marker tree with a thick line of puff snow lying on every branch White on gray card. Draw the bare tree in marker first. Pipe only the upper side of each branch, thicker in the forks.
  • A dandelion clock: a ball of small white dots on a stem, with a few drifting away White on green card. Draw the stem. Dot a round head of tiny dots, then five or six loose ones off to one side.
  • A range of flat gray mountains with a thick puff snowcap on each peak White on painted card. Paint the mountains flat and let them dry. Cap each peak and pull three short drips down it.
  • A row of marker houses after a snowfall, with a raised white line on every roof and sill White on dark card. Draw the houses in pale marker. Pipe each roof ridge, then a short dash on every windowsill.
  • A snowman of three puff blobs that shrink toward the top, with marker stick arms White on dark blue card. Squeeze the biggest blob first and let each one overlap the last. Add the face once it sets.
  • A steam train trailing a chain of blobs back over its carriages White on black card. Draw the train in pale pencil. Chain the blobs back from the funnel, each touching the next.
  • A washing machine door: a round window half full of suds over a blue swirl White on painted card. Paint a blue swirl in a circle and let it dry. Fill the lower half with small blobs.
  • A wave whose crest is a row of white foam blobs breaking over flat blue paint White on painted card. Brush the blue wave flat and let it dry. Dot foam along the curl, biggest at the tip.
  • An igloo built from short white dashes laid like bricks in curved rows White on blue card. Pencil a dome. Lay dashes along the bottom row first and stagger each row above; leave a door.
  • Chimney smoke in puffs that grow as they drift away from the roof Gray on blue card. Start with a pea-sized dot at the chimney pot. Make each puff a little bigger than the one before.
  • Three clouds of piled white puff with flat blue rain lines drawn underneath White on blue card. Pile each cloud from five or six blobs that touch. Draw the rain in marker when dry.

Raised outlines 12

  • A butterfly whose wing cells are raised outlines with a different color dotted in each Black and 3 colors on card. Outline the body and four wings. Split each wing into cells and dot a color in each.
  • A coloring page of your own: one big flower in raised outline, colored in the next day Black on white paper. Pipe a circle, then petals around it, a stem and two leaves. Color with crayons when dry.
  • A maze with raised walls, solved by finger instead of pencil One color on card. Draw the way through in pencil first. Pipe a wall either side of it, then add dead ends.
  • A paper crown with a raised jewel dot under every point, cut out when dry Three colors on a yellow card strip. Pipe a zigzag along the top and a band below it. Dot a jewel under each point.
  • A raised map of a made-up island with a coastline, one river and three mountain dots Blue and brown on card. Pipe the coast in blue. Add the river as one thin line and the peaks as tall brown dots.
  • A road layout for toy cars: raised curbs on gray card, with one roundabout White on gray card. Pencil the roads as wide as a toy car. Pipe both edges of each and a ring for the roundabout.
  • A spider web piped from the center out: spokes first, then sagging threads between White on black card. Pipe eight spokes from one dot. Join them with short curves that dip toward the center.
  • A stained-glass fish: a raised black outline with watery paint dropped into each cell Black on white card. Pipe the fish and its cell lines. Next day, drop thin paint inside each raised wall.
  • A tic-tac-toe board with raised lines, played with buttons and coins One color on a cardboard square. Pipe two lines down and two across. When dry, play with five buttons and five coins.
  • A traced hand piped over, with a fingerprint whorl inside each fingertip One color on card. Trace your hand in pencil. Pipe the outline, then a small spiral inside the tip of each finger.
  • The six faces of a die as raised dots on six card squares, to sort by touch One color on card squares. Dot one to six, laid out as on a die. Shuffle them face down and sort by fingertip.
  • Your name in raised letters to read with a fingertip, eyes closed One color on stiff card. Write the name large in pencil. Pipe over it without stopping in the middle of a letter.

Frosting and food 12

  • A birthday cake from the side with piped shells along the edge of each tier White on painted card. Paint two flat tiers and let them dry. Pipe a row of small shells along the top of each.
  • A cardboard gingerbread house with white icing piped along the roof, door and windows White on brown cardboard. Cut a house shape. Pipe scallops on the roof, a frame on each window, dots up the door.
  • A cupcake with a swirl of puff frosting piped round and round up to a peak Pink on white card. Draw the case in marker. Start the swirl wide at the case and spiral inward without lifting.
  • A donut ring with pink icing that drips down one side and sprinkles pressed in wet Pink on a brown card ring. Pipe a wavy band round the top and pull two drips down. Drop paper sprinkles on at once.
  • A fried egg: a wide, flat white with one tall yellow dome for the yolk White and yellow on dark card. Spread the white thin with the nozzle tip. Squeeze the yolk in one go and leave it.
  • A jam tart: flat red jam inside a crimped crust of small puff humps Tan on painted card. Paint a red circle flat. Pipe small humps side by side all the way round its edge.
  • A mug of cocoa with a hill of puff cream rising above the rim White on brown card. Draw the mug in marker. Pile the cream above the rim in three blobs, the smallest on top.
  • A paper plate pizza with a squiggle of puff cheese over flat red sauce Yellow on a painted paper plate. Brush the sauce flat and let it dry. Squiggle cheese across and dot on toppings.
  • A slice of lemon meringue pie with white peaks pulled up from a flat yellow filling White on painted card. Paint the yellow slice flat. Squeeze blobs along the top and pull the nozzle up from each.
  • A striped tub heaped with pale yellow popcorn blobs Pale yellow on card. Draw a tub with red stripes. Heap small blobs above the rim and let three fall beside it.
  • A sundae in a tall glass, piped in stripes, with one red puff cherry on top Four colors on card. Draw the glass. Pipe the layers side to side from the bottom up; finish with a round red dot.
  • Card sugar cookies in three shapes, each iced to just short of the edge White and 2 colors on tan card. Cut a star, a heart and a tree. Outline each icing shape first, then fill inside.

Wool, fur and scales 12

  • A bee with raised yellow and black stripes and wings left as a flat outline Yellow and black on pale blue card. Pipe the stripes side by side across an oval body. Draw two wings in pen.
  • A caterpillar of blobs in a row, each a different color, with pen antennae Five colors on a green card leaf. Squeeze the blobs so each just touches the last. Draw a face on the first when dry.
  • A crocodile with two rows of raised bumps down a flat green back Dark green on painted card. Paint the crocodile flat. Dot bumps from neck to tail tip, smaller as they go.
  • A fish whose scales are rows of overlapping U shapes piped from the tail forward Two colors on blue card. Draw the outline. Pipe a row of U shapes at the tail, then lap each new row over the last.
  • A hedgehog whose spines are short lines flicked outward from the body Brown on pale card. Draw the face and belly in marker. Touch the nozzle down and flick away, row behind row.
  • A pufferfish: a round flat body with a short raised spike pulled outward all over it Yellow on painted card. Paint the round body flat and let it dry. Touch down and pull a short spike, again and again.
  • A rabbit seen from behind: a flat marker body with one round puff tail White on brown card. Draw two tall ears and a round body in marker. Squeeze one big blob for the tail and leave it.
  • A sheep with a body of packed white blobs and a flat black marker face and legs White on green card. Draw the face and four legs first. Pack blobs between them until no card shows through.
  • A snail whose shell is one spiral piped from the middle out without lifting the bottle One color on card. Start at the center of the shell and wind outward three times. Draw the body in marker.
  • A turtle with a shell of raised plates and a gap of bare card between each Green on card. Draw the turtle. Fill one plate in the middle of the shell, then a ring of plates that never touch it.
  • An octopus with a row of raised sucker dots down each of its eight arms White on painted card. Paint the octopus flat and let it dry. Dot suckers along every arm, smaller toward the tip.
  • An owl with rows of raised feather scallops on its chest and flat marker eyes Brown on cream card. Draw the owl and its eyes. Pipe scallops across the chest, bottom row first, each row lapping.

Rubbing plates 12

  • A coin of your own design to rub by the pocketful and cut out Any color on stiff card. Pipe a circle with a face in profile and a year inside it. Rub in pencil for a silver look.
  • A honeycomb plate rubbed in yellow, with bees drawn on afterward Any color on stiff card. Pipe one hexagon and build others onto its sides. Rub in yellow and add three pen bees.
  • A plate of brick courses, rubbed in red for a wall to draw a cat on Any color on stiff card. Pipe long lines across, then short uprights that stagger from row to row. Rub in red.
  • A plate of dots in a grid, rubbed twice in two colors with the paper shifted between Any color on stiff card. Dot even rows. Rub in yellow, slide the paper a little, and rub again in red.
  • A plate of fish scales, rubbed and cut into a paper fish Any color on stiff card. Cover the card in rows of U shapes. Rub with two crayons held together, then cut out a fish.
  • A plate of knitted stitches: columns of small V shapes to rub a sweater from Any color on stiff card. Pipe columns of small V shapes that nest. Rub in a bright crayon and cut a sweater shape.
  • A plate of leaf veins, rubbed in green and cut into leaves for a paper branch Any color on stiff card. Pipe a midrib and side veins, four leaves to a card. Rub in greens and cut round each.
  • A plate of slanting raindrops, rubbed in gray above a drawn umbrella Any color on stiff card. Pipe short dashes that all lean one way. Rub the top of the page only, then draw below.
  • A plate of tree bark: long wobbly lines and a few knots, rubbed in brown for trunks Any color on stiff card. Pipe uneven lines down the card and three ovals for knots. Rub strips and cut out trunks.
  • A plate of your name, rubbed onto bookplates and labels as often as you like Any color on stiff card. Pipe the name the right way round: a rubbing does not flip it. Rub one for every book.
  • A rubbing plate of wavy lines, rubbed in blue crayon for water Any color on stiff card. Pipe waves from edge to edge. Rub in blue, then draw boats on the paper.
  • A strip of grass blades to rub along the bottom of every drawing in a set Any color on a card strip. Pipe blades of mixed heights along one edge. Rub in green at the foot of each page.

How it works

Puff paint dries raised, so these 60 ideas use it for things that stand up from the page: clouds, frosting, wool, and lines a fingertip can follow. Squeeze it on thick and dry every picture flat.

Read the full guide

Blobs first, then lines

A blob is the simplest mark: squeeze and lift. Clouds, snow and foam is built from blobs. Raised outlines asks for a steady line, so pencil the shape first and pipe over it. The finger maze and the stained-glass fish both start that way.

Rubbing plates need a firm line

Rubbing plates pipes a pattern on stiff card. Once it is dry, thin paper goes on top and the side of a crayon picks the pattern up. Press a dry test dot first: if it squashes under a finger, your paint dries too soft for this, and the other four groups suit it better.

  • Thick blobs take longer to dry than thin lines. Leave the picture flat until the tallest one is firm.

Questions and answers

What can you make with puff paint?

Anything that should stand up from the page: a sheep of packed blobs, icing on a cardboard gingerbread house, a spider web piped from the center out. Twelve more are patterns to take crayon rubbings from once they are dry.

What are easy things to paint with puff paint?

The Easy group has 18: three clouds over marker rain, a snail shell in one spiral, a fried egg with a tall yolk, a caterpillar of blobs. Each needs one kind of mark, a blob or a single line.

What do you put puff paint on?

Every idea here names its base: card, cardboard, a paper plate, or card that was painted flat first. For fabric, the label of your paint says what it holds on.

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