DIY Patriotic Sidewalk Chalk

Who doesn’t have happy memories of drawing hopscotch or a chalk treasure hunt on the floor near you home. Making your own Sidewalk Chalk is surprisingly straight forward to do.

DIY Patriotic Sidewalk Chalk

Materials:
1 cup Water
2 cups Plaster of paris*
3 tbsp tempera powder
An old tin can and stick for mixing and storing – one old tin per color.

Instructions:
Add your tempera powder, plaster of paris and slowly mix with the water. You will have a reasonably RUNNY consistency. You think it will never set. But fear not, it will. The runnier your original mixture, the softer your chalk will become and the easier it will be to draw with. If you want to make white chalk, you can leave the plaster of paris plain, but you will get a better effect if you do add white tempera powder.

Plaster of paris will start setting after 20-30  minutes (you will see it getting warm – a great science experiment). So you have to work reasonably quickly.

Carefully pour your mixture into your silicon trays. Don’t worry if it looks a little messy you can tidy them afterwards. Give you tray a gentle shake. You want to get all air bubbles out. Top off if necessary.

Let it set. Ideally leave your shapes in the trays for at least a day before taking out. Though you should be able to remove them once fully cooled again. Leave 2-3 days before actually using them.