How To Make Your Own Sidewalk Paint

This post brought to you by Linda from Night Owl corner.

Make your own sidewalk paint with just two ingredients you probably already have in your pantry; great outdoor activity for toddlers and big kids alike!


My daughter Sophie loves to color and draw. We go through coloring books in the blink of an eye and there’s never any paper in the printer because she takes it all to draw on. She’s become quite an artist if I do say so myself! I thought it would be fun to make some homemade sidewalk paint for her to use on the driveway, which is one of her favorite places to draw with chalk. The driveway is such a huge blank canvas with endless room to create! Let me show you how you can make your own sidewalk paint.

Diy sidewalk paint and 23 other fun summer activities for toddlers

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Materials for homemade sidewalk paint

  • small containers
  • water
  • cornstarch
  • food coloring
  • foam brushes

How to make your own sidewalk paint

All you do is mix ¼ cup cold water, ¼ cup cornstarch and 6 to 8 drops of food coloring together, and repeat this process for every color you want to make. It doesn’t get much easier than that! Sophie enjoyed helping mix it up, and the food coloring looks kind of cool when you first put it in the corn starch mixture.

There’s a fine line between the paint being too thin or too thick. If it’s too thick it will be difficult to spread on the sidewalk; too thin and it’ll drip everywhere. So you may have to add more corn starch or water to get the right consistency.

Sophie painted a pretty rainbow and a garden scene. We didn’t make any orange paint, and I was really impressed that she suggested painting yellow on top of red to make orange. So you can easily turn this into a learning activity as well.

Diy sidewalk paint and 23 other fun summer activities for toddlers

How To Make Sidewalk Paint

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Make your own sidewalk paint with just two ingredients you probably already have in your pantry; great outdoor activity for toddlers and big kids alike!
Active Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Yield 1 color of sidewalk paint
Cost $5

Equipment

  • small containers
  • foam brushes

Materials

  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 6-8 drops food coloring

Instructions
 

  • Mix water and cornstarch together in a small container.
  • Add food coloring until the mixture is the color you want.
  • Repeat for as many colors as you'd like!

Notes

There’s a fine line between the paint being too thin or too thick. If it’s too thick it will be difficult to spread on the sidewalk; too thin and it’ll drip everywhere. So you may have to add more corn starch or water to get the right consistency.

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

We made this sidewalk paint during our block party a few years ago, and the kids absolutely loved it! It comes together really quickly, and everyone from the littlest babies to the high schoolers loved drawing all over the sidewalks in our neighborhood.

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Linda

Hi I'm Linda from Night Owl Corner! On my blog you will find lots sewing, crochet, arts and crafts, and DIY projects that I'm often working on late into the night! I also love to share recipes, especially desserts. I'm married to my best friend Robbie and mom to 2 beautiful girls Sophie (age 4) and Audrey (age 1). We live in coastal South Carolina so I love to fit in trips to the beach in between all my craft projects! Hope you'll stop by and see what I'm making this week!

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Reader Interactions

  1. Haley Ventura says

    9 years ago

    Hi, this is such a cute and clever idea! I work at a daycare in the mornings and there is a decent amount of cement next to the playground outside that this would be perfect for! Great idea to keep them busy for a long time. Only concern, does it stain clothes or get really sticky in hair? Some of the kids I watch are messy! Thanks for the cute idea.

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      9 years ago

      It won’t get sticky in their hair (it’s mostly liquid so it’ll just make their hair wet), but it does use a bit of food coloring, so it could stain their clothes if they get it on them. But if you rinse it pretty quickly it will come right out! I got a few drips on my jeans and shirt while mixing it up and was able to rinse them out with just plain water, and it’s all fine now!

  2. Meghan says

    9 years ago

    Super cute! Does it wash off well? We made some last summer, and hubby had a fit when some of it didn’t wash off 🙁

    • Jessi Wohlwend says

      9 years ago

      Yep it washes off super easily! It was all over our sidewalks all up and down the block after a neighborhood block party, and it was gone after the rainstorm the next day. Short lived, but super fun!

  3. Ace says

    10 years ago

    These remind me of the chalk drawings my children like to do around or street – However, this sounds even better!

  4. Laura Beth says

    10 years ago

    Awesome! Definitely filing this one away for when our little Chickadee is a little older :o)

  5. Gwen says

    10 years ago

    That is such a cool idea!

  6. the smelly lady says

    10 years ago

    How well does this wear and wash off? Might be a creative way to promote business events. Thanks for sharing

  7. Crystal says

    10 years ago

    Even though I don’t have little ones anymore, I love the idea of making chalk paint for kiddos. I’m pinning this for my friends and future grandkids 🙂

  8. keri @ shaken together says

    10 years ago

    What a fun idea! We’ll have to try this the next time we entertain little guests 🙂

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