Painting With Sidewalk Chalk

If you know me, you know I love sidewalk chalk. A long time ago I discovered a method of making paint with it, all by accident! Today Molly (4) and I braved the heat and painted with sidewalk chalk. We stuck to the shaded portion of our driveway and here's how we did it:

First, get part of your driveway wet with a hose. We also filled up several containers with water, including a mini swimming pool just for fun, and an extra tub to rinse our brushes off in. Next, use sidewalk chalk to color large blobs of each color. Using sidewalk chalk on wet pavement will really use it up fast, so be sure you're okay with that first! We used up some old broken pieces for this. You might need to add a little extra water to it if it gets too chunky. Once you have your "palette" ready, grab your paint brushes and go to town! Dip the brush in water first, then use it like regular paint on dry pavement. Footprints and hand prints are especially neat with sidewalk chalk paint!


As you're painting, your artwork might look more like just water, but when it dries it gets really bright! The first time we discovered this awesome paint, we stepped in it and made footprints. When it dried, the footprints showed up white and looked like a ghost had been there!

While we were outside, we also did a few experiments with water and chalk. First, I had Molly use a large paint brush to paint with plain water. I had her do a stripe in the sun and we watched as it evaporated, but noted her "artwork" in the shade didn't fade so fast. Also, we compared the sidewalk chalk hues when we drew on dry pavement versus wet pavement.