DIY Sidewalk Paint – So Much Fun!

rebeca  Friday, October 7, 2011

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I am on a DIY kick and now I can knock one more item off my list of DIY projects to accomplish this year. This one has got to be my favorite so far. It was super easy, cheap, messy and so much fun. But I wasn’t expecting what a great learning tool it would be. As were mixing our ingredients, I realized that we only had yellow and blue food coloring…and not green, my son’s favorite. I called hubby to tell him to pick up more coloring at the store. But that’s when the little man reminded me that yellow and blue make green. First of all…I had no idea he knew that! Second of all, it made me think about all the other experiments we could do with mixing colors. Instant learning opportunity presented itself and when hubby got home with our new colors, we began playing with colors.

To make your own sidewalk paint, here’s what you need:

Equal parts corn starch and water

Food coloring

paint brushes (The Dollar Store has a nice selection, but I recommend regular brushes because the foam ones were pretty much disintegrated by the time we were done.)

containers for paint (the paint washes right off, so anything will do. We chose a muffin tin from the Dollar Tree)

Place cornstarch in each container, followed by water and food coloring. I read on another blog that the food coloring can leave a bit of a residual stain on cement, so she recommended using just 4 drops. We used way more than 4 drops and I didn’t notice any staining on my son’s hands and legs. I haven’t washed it off the asphalt driveway yet, but it didn’t stain my husband’s white car that happened to get in the way of my freewheeling son. But if you’re concerned, try testing it out on an inconspicuous spot first.