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Living Well Mom

Simple, easy, and natural ways to care for your family.

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DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for Kids

By Erika in Activities for Kids

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

This simple sidewalk paint practically guarantees your kids will have hours of fun. You can easily make this recipe with ingredients you already have at home, for just pennies. Give this outdoor chalk paint a try and see what creative designs your children come up with. 

An affordable DIY project that doesn’t require me to go to the store? Sign me up! Even better, this sidewalk paint is a simple enough project that your kids can make it all on their own. And when they’re done…they’ll play with it for hours! Seriously, moms, this one is an all-around home run!

DIY Sidewalk Paint

Pinterest graphic for outdoor sidewalk paint DIY.
free printable traffic ispy game text with red car clipart and find traffic signals pdf
this idea now...

Painting is a favorite activity for kids, if not for moms (mess anyone?), but when you take it outside as sidewalk chalk paint, you’ve got a winner for everyone.

Not only for all the reasons above but for the sole fact that kids will be painting (happily!) outside. Yup, you heard me right—your children will be happily painting and the mess will stay outside, so we moms get to keep our sanity too. But this isn’t just any ol’ paint.

This kid-friendly sidewalk paint combines paint with chalk for an extra fun version. When kids paint the sidewalk chalk onto the driveway or sidewalk, it will dry into a pretty chalk creation later. And just like chalk, this outdoor chalk paint will vanish with water.

Honestly, I can hardly think of a better outdoor activity for warm summer days!

By the way, if you are looking for an indoor paint to use, I recommend this homemade puffy paint. Kids love it!

Bottles of colorful sidewalk paint in a line

 

How to Make DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Like all the kids’ activities we share, DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for Kids is super easy to make. It’s so simple, kids can help or even make it all by themselves!

sign up form for playdough shape mats

And all you need are a couple common household ingredients and food coloring.

Sidewalk paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple lined on concrete ground

Ingredients for Outdoor Chalk Paint

For each batch, you’ll need:

  • 1/3 cup baking soda
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 3/4-1 cup water
  • food coloring (for bright vivid colors, use food color gel.)
  • paint brushes or squeeze bottles

If you want to “spray” the paint on as my kids did, you can find squeeze bottles on Amazon.

Ingredients for sidewalk paint

Note: we tried and tried to get this sidewalk chalk paint to work in spray bottles (how fun would THAT be?!) but it either clogged the bottle or was so watery, it wasn’t worth it. After 5 or 6 different batches, we gave up and switched to squeeze bottles instead. They work great and my kids loved them!

You can also use paintbrushes or sponges for this fun activity. I like to rotate what we use to keep my kids busy and happy.

How to Make Sidewalk Chalk Paint:

Start with 3/4 to 1 cup of water in a bowl or measuring cup. If you’re using the squeeze bottles I recommend 1 cup of water. If you’re using paintbrushes, it can be a little thicker so I’d only use 3/4 cup water.

Pour 1/3 cup corn starch into the water.

adding corn starch to water to make diy chalk 

Stir it up with a spoon or whisk, breaking up any clumps.

Stirring ingredients to make sidewalk chalk

Next, add 1/3 cup baking soda.

baking soda being added to a diy sidewalk chalk base

Stir it up, again breaking apart any clumps.

Pour into your squeeze bottle. (You can skip this step if you’re using paintbrushes; instead, pour it into a small container)

Pouring diy sidewalk paint mixture into squirt bottles

Lastly, squeeze a few drops of food color into the mixture. We use Americolor food gel for the bright vivid colors we get. (A little goes a long way and the bottles last forever!)

You can add more color for brighter colors, but a word of caution: have the kids wear junk clothes! Or simply use less color, but keep in mind the sidewalk chalk paint won’t show up as well on the pavement.

adding food coloring to sidewalk chalk paint

Put the top on your squeeze bottle and shake it well to mix up the color.

Mixing together diy sidewalk paint

That’s it! See how easy?

Do this for as many batches and different colors of DIY sidewalk chalk paint you want to make.

Need a new idea to keep your kids busy OUTSIDE? This DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint will keep them occupied for hours as they make fun creations that later dry into chalk! The best part is it's super easy and inexpensive to make! Get the how-to for this awesome kids' activity here:

How to Use the DIY Chalk Paint

I left large bags/containers of baking soda and cornstarch outside for my kids to use and they made lots. It was a fun way to keep them occupied for an afternoon while I finished some work inside.

Young girl painting with homemade chalk paint

My kids loved mixing different colors and sometimes just spraying randomly to see what happened.

Young boy mixing blue and green sidewalk paint together

See how the color start drying? This homemade sidewalk paint has a pretty chalk-like finish.

DIY sidewalk paint drying on asphalt

Even our chickens had to check out our sidewalk chalk paint! They were quite curious and tried tasting it. Thank goodness, it’s non-toxic!

Children playing with DIY sidewalk paint while chickens watch

And that’s DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for kids!

collection of photos - make your own sidewalk chalk paint

Your children will love this fun activity and you might even want to join them for a chalk painting party! Pin the post on Pinterest to save the instructions for later.

More Fun Painting Activities for Kids:

  • Bubble Painting Activity
  • How to Make a Sponge Painting Rainbow
  • Simple-Ingredient Puffy Paint
  • Two-Ingredient Edible Finger Paint

Dear mom, I have so much more I’d love to share with you…

Fill out this form to join the Living Well Mom email community and receive the best of the best for your family’s journey to living well!
    *Note: ↑ this form does not give you a freebie. If you are looking for a free printable or other freebie, scroll back up to the rest of the post and use the other form.

    Filed Under: Activities for Kids Published on April 8, 2020

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    About Erika

    Erika Bragdon is a second-generation homeschooling mom with 3 kids at home and 1 in college. She lives in the beautiful hills of New Hampshire on a small farm and loves writing, baking, nature, and sharing flower essences and more natural solutions with moms.

    Comments

    1. Ladena says

      June 28, 2016 at 3:34 pm

      Great idea! I love that you only need a few ingredients to make this. I also like that you put the paint in squeeze bottles. I’ll have to make some of this for my kids this summer.

      Reply
    2. Jennifer says

      June 29, 2016 at 8:43 am

      This is something my nephew would have loved when he was younger. Actually, he would probably still love it. He loves to do his drawing on big paper.

      Reply
    3. Ellen says

      June 29, 2016 at 8:44 am

      What a fun summer activity. I love that it’s non toxic!

      Reply
    4. LaShawn says

      June 29, 2016 at 10:51 pm

      This looks like such a great summer activity thatI know my son would love!! I can’t wait to try it out!

      Reply
    5. Reesa says

      July 1, 2016 at 9:37 pm

      My kids have been seeing this in the stores and I KNEW it has to be easy to make! Thank you!

      Reply
    6. Jan Neumann says

      June 9, 2017 at 1:43 pm

      Once it’s dry, is the chalk paint permanent on the sidewalk or does it wash off ?

      Thanks!

      Reply
    7. Priscilla says

      January 25, 2018 at 11:41 am

      Does it last. Can you make ahead of time or does it dry out?

      Reply
    8. Mary says

      May 29, 2018 at 3:01 pm

      Is it permanent or does it wash off?

      Reply
      • Erika says

        May 31, 2018 at 12:06 pm

        We didn’t have any issues with it washing off. If your child wears a white shirt, I can’t promise there won’t be any stains, but for us, we had no problem. Have fun!

        Reply
    9. Angela Simon de Carvalho says

      November 21, 2018 at 2:50 pm

      Thanks for sharing the recipe. I simply loved the fact that your chicken tried to eat it!
      Chicken are funny.
      Best wishes from Brazil
      Angela

      Reply
    10. Catherine says

      July 30, 2019 at 11:34 am

      Can this be used on a wall with chalkboard paint also? Looking to make marty decorations with chalkboard paint that can be washed off & reused every year.

      Reply
      • Erika says

        July 30, 2019 at 11:59 am

        Hi Catherine, yes you can use it inside too!

        Reply
    11. Enav says

      May 31, 2020 at 2:18 am

      Great idea! Gonna try it this week!
      Does it come off the sidewalk? like regular chalks?

      Reply
      • Christine says

        June 8, 2020 at 11:19 pm

        Hi Enav! Yes, a quick spray from the hose will clear it right up.

        Reply
    12. Anna says

      April 3, 2022 at 1:10 pm

      Can you make ahead of time?

      Reply
      • Erika says

        August 15, 2022 at 5:08 pm

        Yes you should be able to. I’d probably use it within 2-3 days. Just make sure you shake well before using.

        Reply

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