Saturday, June 7, 2008

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Prep Time: 2 minutes
Activity Time: 10 minutes or until the paint is all spilled/used



The finished product, after it dried.

I borrowed this from a site, but can't find the link for it. The original poster said she used the sidewalk chalk paint on a wood fence, driveway, bricks, and other hard surfaces and it worked and was still washable.


I made four colors and divided the paint between two muffin tins, thinking it would help the kids keep their colors separate. They managed to mix them all up within seconds, but it was fine. One note: The paint needed stirring after it sat for a bit - the water and corn starch separated when allowed to sit.

We used cheap paint brushes from a $1 water color kit that I had on hand, some sponge brushes, and some sponge stamps.

The paint was a bit thin for the sponge stamps, but they ended up being good easy tools for my toddlers to get the paint on the sidewalk.

Wear aprons and shoes you can wash easily - this was messy, but it all washed out (though Rand's hands were a little green the rest of the day).

Recipe:

-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.

5 comments:

Shakespere said...

Hi. I really enjoyed your blog. Have fun with it.

eight muddy feet said...

Did it stain the concrete?? That's my only fear with using food coloring, is that it won't come out of something.

Looks like fun though!!!

wendy said...

I love your new fun blog idea. I have cornstarch and food color. I think we will try that tomorrow...

Mary said...

Tasha, we didn't wash it off, but there were some big storms this weekend so I had to go out and look at the sidewalk this morning to see if there was any paint left after all the rain. All gone! No stains! Seems safe.

Heya Wendy! Did it work for you?

Amanda @ www.kiddio.org said...

Hi! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the recipe from my blog:

librarycollective.blogspot.com

I love the way that you used muffin tins. I'd bet that you could mix up red/yellow/blue then make a number of shades in each well. Neat!