Homemade Sidewalk Paint

Here's another cheap and easy project that's perfect for these last few weeks of summer when camps have ended and the regular summer activities have lost their appeal. With just a few items that are probably tucked in the back of your pantry, you can make homemade sidewalk paint and let the kids paint masterpieces on your sidewalks or driveway.
 

Here's what you need:

• cornstarch 
• water 
• food coloring 
• small containers (I used cupcake tins from the dollar store) 
• paint brushes (the cheap foam ones work well)

Here's what to do:

1. In your small containers, add equal parts cornstarch and water. I used a little less than 1/4 cup of each for our paint. Mix the cornstarch and water well (it'll be gloppy at the bottom). Add several drops of food coloring to each container to make the colors your children want and mix well.

Cornstarch and water mixed well.

Adding the food coloring.

2. Paint away! The paint will go on rather watery and dull, but will dry to a nice bright pastel. If your driveway (or other painting surface) is particularly smooth or bumpy, you might want to experiment with adding a little more or less cornstarch to get the coverage you want, but the equal parts ratio is a good starting point.


3. My kids like using the paints for free form painting and also like drawing an outline with sidewalk chalk and coloring it in with the paint.