Save Money on Crayola Sidewalk Paint and Make Your Own this Summer!
May 23 '06 (Updated Jun 08 '07)
The Bottom Line Easy to make, inexpensive and fun to use. What's not to like about homemade sidewalk paint?
The kids next door received a slew of the new out door Crayola products this spring. My girls were more than happy to help their friends use all of their new art supplies. All of the kids seemed to enjoy the paint the most so I figured I would pick up some more. At nearly $5 for 3 small bottles this stuff isn’t cheap. So I searched for something better.
Recipe for Success
1 part corn starch
1 part water
Food coloring
Just mix equal parts of corn starch and water, add some food coloring and you have sidewalk paint. I do recommend using a whisk or better yet a hand mixer if you are making an entire box worth of paint (about 3 1/2 cups of corn starch). I mix up a batch in my large Pyrex bowl and then pour the paint into reusable/disposable 1 cup containers but paper cups would work just fine. An entire box makes about 4 cups of paint, plenty for about 6 different colors. I add 4-6 drops of food coloring once I have poured the paint into individual containers. Store brand corn starch is about $1 for a box and makes enough paint for 3 kids to paint for over an hour and one toddler to do an amazing Jackson Pollock imitation.
Let’s Paint
We use inexpensive utility 1” paint brushes that we had laying around, but any paint brush that fits into the container will work to get the paint onto your driveway or sidewalk. If you thin the paint down a bit with a little more water you can also use a spray bottle to apply the paint to larger areas.
The kids love to use our driveway to make large murals, hopscotch or just to draw for fun. Since you are using larger brushes, this medium is not for fine detailed work - you can't get enough paint onto a small brush. However their absolute favorite activity is to lie down in the driveway and be traced so they can paint life-sizes self portraits. I also have some plastic stencils that the older neighbor seems to really like.
The colors are a bit dull when you apply them to the driveway but brighten up significantly as the water evaporates. The paint works best on a breezy and/or sunny day to get the colors to dry faster. On our asphalt driveway pastels show up better but on our cement sidewalks I add more food coloring so the darker colors contrast against the light gray background.
The kids have all but abandoned our huge box of sidewalk chalk. It is so much easier to make the larger drawings that the driveway just seems to call for. It takes a lot more effort to get a decent amount of color with chalk than it does with paint. They do sometimes pull out a piece or two of chalk to add details or words to their drawings.
Something I really like about this paint is that I know exactly what is in it. While I don’t recommend you set your child down with a spoon and a bowl of this paint baring any allergies a taste is nothing to worry about. While I do not doubt Crayola's claims of producing non-toxic products, I do like knowing that my kids are essentially taste testing gravy thickener.
Mess Factor
The paint in and of itself is not that messy. It washes off skin and clothing very easily. I have a much tougher time getting the black ground in dirt from the driveway out of clothes than I do the actual paint. But I still plan on a bath (or run through the sprinkler) after a painting session. Our three year old like to splatter paint and in the process manages to cover anyone in the vicinity with little specs of paint. Although food coloring can stain it is so diluted that it has not been a problem on skin or clothing.
Rain with eventually wash the paint from the driveway. If you are in a hurry a nozzle on your garden hose will hasten the cleaning of your child’s canvas. I don’t find that the paint comes off as easily as sidewalk chalk, but it isn’t all that difficult to get off.
Final Thoughts
I’ve given Crayola plenty of business in the last 4 years, but finally I can whip up a recipe at home that is just as good, if not better, than the commercially available paint. I can make any color (or shade of color) that the kids want. We aren’t limited by what Crayola decides to bundle together. This is such an inexpensive project that I’m not concerned about how many kids come to paint or if a container accidentally gets knocked over. If you don’t mind a little mess homemade sidewalk paint comes highly recommended in this neighborhood.
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Member: Mary Ellen
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