How to Make Rainbow Paint by Freezing a Tube
Learn how to layer and freeze acrylic paints inside a plastic tube to dispense crisp, multi-color rainbow ribbons for dynamic sensory art projects.
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🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ Clear plastic squeeze tube (100ml)
- ✓ Set of 6 plastic transfer pipettes
- ✓ Home freezer
- ✓ Palette knife
- ✓ Craft scissors
- ✓ Small mixing cups
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Non-toxic acrylic paints (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
- ✓ Heavyweight mixed-media paper (300 gsm)
- ✓ Plastic wrap
- ✓ Gallon freezer bag
- ✓ Parchment paper
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Store paint inside an airtight secondary container while freezing to isolate it completely from food.
- • Use only certified non-toxic (AP-rated) water-based acrylics to ensure safe skin contact during crafting.
- • Handle cold plastic tubes carefully without excessive force to avoid brittle cracking.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (6 Steps)
Prepare the Applicator Tube
Unscrew the cap and nozzle from your clear plastic squeeze tube to expose the wide opening. Inspect the interior to ensure it is completely clean and dry before adding any medium. Wrap the exterior base tightly with a small piece of plastic wrap to prevent accidental leakage while loading.
- • The tube interior is bone dry and dust-free.
- • The dispensing tip is firmly sealed off.
- • Leaving moisture inside the tube, which causes ice crystals and dilutes the paint pigment.
Standardize Paint Viscosities
Dispense roughly two tablespoons of each rainbow color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) into separate small cups. Stir each color with a clean palette knife to confirm they all share a smooth, heavy-body consistency. If any color is overly thick, mix in two drops of water so all paints flow at an identical rate.
- • All six colors have the uniform consistency of warm honey.
- • No pigment clumps remain in the mixing cups.
- • Using paints of wildly different viscosities, causing faster-flowing colors to bleed into others.
Layer the Color Spectrum Columns
Draw up red paint into a transfer pipette and dispense it carefully down the inner wall of the tube to form the first layer. Rotate the tube slightly and add orange directly beside or on top, continuing in rainbow sequence through purple. Keep the tube vertical to ensure distinct boundaries between the colors without shaking.
- • Distinct colored stripes or layers are visible through the transparent tube casing.
- • The tube is filled to approximately 80% capacity with minimal air pockets.
- • Squirting paint too aggressively, which blends the colors prematurely into a muddy tone.
Seal and Freeze the Tube
Screw the nozzle firmly onto the tube and place it upright into a gallon freezer bag. Position the bagged tube upright in your freezer between sturdy items so it stays completely vertical. Freeze for approximately 2.5 to 3 hours until the paint reaches a semi-solid, paste-like slush state.
- • The tube feels firm to a gentle squeeze without being rock hard.
- • The paint layers maintain rigid separation without sloshing.
- • Freezing overnight until completely rock solid, making the paint impossible to extrude without long thaw times.
Temper and Test Extrusion
Remove the tube from the freezer and allow it to sit at room temperature for 3 to 5 minutes to slightly soften the exterior layer. Snip the very tip of the nozzle with craft scissors to create an aperture roughly 4 to 6 millimeters wide. Gently compress the tube over a scrap sheet of parchment paper until a uniform multi-color ribbon begins to emerge.
- • A smooth, multi-color stream exits the nozzle cleanly.
- • All distinct rainbow hues appear side-by-side without blending.
- • Squeezing with excessive force before the tip thaws, which can burst the tube seams.
Apply Rainbow Strokes to Canvas
Position the nozzle at a 45-degree angle against your heavy mixed-media paper. Apply steady, continuous hand pressure while gliding the nozzle across the surface in sweeping arcs or lines. Lift the tube cleanly at the end of each stroke to create vibrant 3D rainbow bands with sharp color separation.
- • Raised, dimensional rainbow lines with crisp edges on the paper.
- • No muddy brown blending between adjacent color stripes.
- • Moving the hand too quickly, which results in broken, patchy color trails.
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by Toy Mix — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No transfer pipette? small ziplock bag with the corner snipped
- No clear plastic squeeze tube? clear silicone refillable travel bottle
- No palette knife? wooden craft stick or plastic coffee stirrer