How to Make Your Own Chalk Paint

Making your own kids' chalk paint is so easy! You can use small, old pieces of chalk the kids won't use and upcycle them into DIY chalk paint. It's a super cheap and super fun activity that will keep kids entertained for ages.

DIY chalk paint: What you need

Here is a fabulously easy recipe for how to turn leftover sidewalk chalk into fun chalk paint for kids. You don’t even need to go out and buy any supplies. All you need is water and scraps of sidewalk chalk or drawing chalk.

• Broken pieces of chalk
• Water
• Strong plastic bags
• A small hammer or rubber mallet. You could even use the flat side of a meat mallet
• Plastic tubs (upcycled cottage cheese tubs work well) or an old muffin tin for the different chalk paint colors
• Spoons for mixing the paint
• Sturdy paintbrushes or small paint rollers

How to make chalk paint

The great thing about this messy play kids activity is that you can involve your children through the whole process.

1. Get your children to help you collect all the bits of broken and leftover chalk. You can use sidewalk chalk and regular-sized drawing chalk.
2. Next, the kiddos can sort the chalks by color into the muffin tin or plastic tubs.
3. Place each color of chalk into a separate plastic bag. Use strong bags so they don’t tear or break during the next step.
4. Wrap a chalk-filled bag in a kitchen towel.
5. Use the rubber mallet or hammer to crush the chalks into a fine powder.
6. Pour the crushed chalk back into the containers.
7. Add water to each color and get the kids to stir and mix the water into the chalk powder. You are aiming for the consistency of pancake batter.
8. It's best if you leave the mixture to stand for at least 30 minutes.
9. Stir the chalk paint colors up again before painting.

Fun activities with DIY chalk paint

Now that you know how to make chalk paint, it’s time to get painting! Open-ended messy play engages all your little one’s senses and is excellent for developing their curiosity.

• Draw a hopscotch board
• Paint pictures on the outside of your windows
• Your kids can even paint flowers on the lawn
• Shadow painting

The great thing about recycled chalk paint is that your kids can have a whale of a time making a mess outside and the clean-up is as easy as 1,2,3. Simply hose off the area that they have been painting. Or you can leave their sidewalk artwork for everyone to enjoy and wait for the rain to wash it away.

Loads of DIY fun at your fingertips

Save.com is all about keeping kids engaged without spending loads of money. There are a bunch of fun and affordable activities that you can do with your children. Like these DIY bath bombs for example, or these kitchen science experiments. Need to stock up on a few messy play essentials? Look out for deals and savings with Save.com's coupon book finder.