Sidewalk Chalk Painting

Sidewalk chalk painting is so much fun and so inexpensive when you make it at home. It is simply cornstarch, food coloring, and water.

The general recipe is:

1/4 cup cornstarch
few drops of food coloring
1/4 cup water.

However, I find you can add more water than that and it works fine-at least doubling the water. The tip is to use hot water because it will make the cornstarch easier to mix. If you have a bake shop near you, you can find ENDLESS colors of food coloring.

I apologize for the quality of the pictures. It's summertime in Texas which means we save most of the outdoor activities until after it gets cooler in the evening.

Yes, I'm sure we got plenty of looks when people went by and saw my (almost) 3yr old with a big paint roller painting our driveway and walkways, but that never bothers me a bit. They just don't know what they're missing out on ;)




She asked several times why she couldn't paint Daddy's work truck ;)

Salt Painting

This activity is interesting for all ages including mommas! It is great for working on colors, color mixing (yellow and blue make green), and creative experimenting.

QUICK DIRECTIONS:

I recommend using white construction paper so you can see the colors mix.
Make a design on the paper with glue. I just squirted it straight out of the bottle in a design.
Sprinkle salt generously on top of the glue and then shake the excess. Yup, just like with glitter.
Dab your paint brush in watered down food coloring.
Gently touch the brush onto the salt design and lift quickly.
You will see the color immediately spread.
If you want to practice color mixing, simply dab the two colors close to one another.
The colors will run together and mix.
So fun!

SUPPLIES:
salt, food coloring (mixed with water), paintbrush, and white construction paper.

Considering you can buy salt for 33cents a container, you could do this activities endlessly.