kid-made sidewalk chalk paint
It’s my eternal struggle. I want the children to paint, I truly do, but it can just be so so messy…especially for a two year old who paints for two minutes then requires ten minutes worth of cleanup (and a bath to get it out of his hair). Often enough I bite the bullet and do it anyway, but with Summer comes the marvelous opportunity to do it every day, especially now that we’ve found this awesomely cheap recipe for making our own sidewalk paint.
You need:
-liquid food coloring (like what you find in the spice section at the grocery)
-box o’ corn starch
-water
-minimum 8 oz individual containers for each color
Method:
-Measure 1/4 cup cornstarch into each cup.
-Add 1/4 cup water to each.
-Drip in 5-10 drops of food coloring.
-Stir it up. At first it will seem as though the cornstarch just won’t mix in, but all at once it comes together. Just don’t put the water in first or it’s significantly tougher to get it to mix up.
-Add more color for intense colors, less for pastel shades. Our box has recipes on the back for additional shades and we found that the ‘egg dying’ recipes worked great for this.
-The finished paint may seem thin, but it paints on just great. You can use more cornstarch next time if you’d prefer a thicker paint.
-We tested on the driveway, fence, and brick, and the paint came off of all the surfaces just fine.
Finally, find your personal painting style. Josie’s into painting happy-faced flowers and hopscotch boards, while Jasper’s a mix it all together and see how it turns out kind of guy.
*note–One of the comments pointed out that the paint is slippery when it’s wet! We didn’t test this theory out, but be careful!
more from the collective:
- Frances England CD giveaway!
- butterfly in a chrysalis puppets (so cool!)
- stamping with potatoes and cookie cutters
- printmaking with bubble wrap and corrugated paper
- all craft posts
- subscribe to our blog over on the right side —->
This is great! I totally agree about the 2- year old, so am very interested in this. Where did you find the neat brushes?
Thanks for the comment! I picked up the brushes at our local teacher supply store. They just had a big cup of them to choose from. I think that they were Alex brand. Our handles are different, but they’re like these:
http://www.growingtreetoys.com/product/4479
oh, we did this for the last day of school…good times.
glad to have found you!
Wow, that is such an awesome recipe. My dd is 8 and loves to paint so we will be making this chalk paint for fun this summer. Thanks for the fun.
Thanks! That is great! My boys will love this.
My two year old son and I tried this out this morning and it was great! Just two comments: 1. this paint is slippery! If you pour it out on the ground and run through it, you’ll fall, so be careful. 2. I ran out of food coloring so I used a little bit of regular kids’ finger paint and it worked wonderfully.
Wow, it seems like everybody’s really having fun with this! Thanks for the heads up on the slip-risk, Sarah, I added a footnote to the tutorial. I’d hate for someone to get hurt!
FABULOUS! The kids “decorated” our bird feeder, deck, patio and the bottoms of their feet! And as the four year old announced, “it’s surprisingly beautiful!”
We had fun with this: http://www.dabbled.org/2008/05/birthday-party-invite-thank-you-note.html
Only took a little extra scrubbing in the bath.
woops, wrong link!! I meant ot copy that other link as one to remember.
Here is my boy painting with the chalk paint: http://julie329.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e398a2abc0000200fad68d4a430005.html.
I just found your blog and can’t wait to try this with my 2 year old. Thanks!!
I like this idea! I linked to it so I ‘ll remember it for the future. I just found your blog and it looks great!
Wow!
My friend bought a side walk paint kit last year for about 20.00. While it did come with some handy dandy paint brushes, it was a rather expensive few hours of play. I just made up 8 colors following your recipe and doubt I even broke a dollar in materials! That was an awesome 2 hours of entertainment not only for my kids, but the entire neighborhood. I now have one brightly colored Drive Way! Thank You for Sharing.
[...] @Kiddio: Kid-Made Sidewalk Chalk Paint! [...]
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[...] kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life Posted by root 35 minutes ago (http://www.kiddio.org) Thanks for the comment i picked up the brushes at our local teacher supply store the kids decorated our bird feeder deck patio and the bottoms of their feet my friend bought a side walk paint kit last year for about 20 00 powered by wordpress log in entri Discuss | Bury | News | kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life [...]
[...] kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life Posted by root 5 minutes ago (http://www.kiddio.org) Box o 39 corn starch water minimum 8 oz individual containers for each color thanks for the comment i picked up the brushes at our local teacher supply store bird feeder deck patio and the bottoms of their feet my friend bought a side walk paint powered b Discuss | Bury | News | kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life [...]
[...] kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life Posted by root 15 minutes ago (http://www.kiddio.org) The kids decorated our bird feeder deck patio and the bottoms of their feet only took a little extra scrubbing in the bath creewjulie by root 35 minutes ago http www kiddio org thanks for the comment i picked up bought a side walk paint kit last year for Discuss | Bury | News | kid made sidewalk chalk paint kiddio kids craft life [...]
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