Thursday, March 18, 2010

Playin' in the Kitchen

One of the things that I love about the kitchen is that it's not just for cooking and baking. The kitchen is a place for family, laughter, fun, art, creativity, experimenting, learning, loving and growing; and the list goes on . . .

Yesterday I tried my hand at a new recipe . . . Sidewalk Chalk!!

  • 1c Plaster of Paris
  • 1c Water
  • Powdered Paint
  • Any sort of mold
  1. Mix together Plaster of Paris and water
  2. Pour in powdered color of your choice and mix
  3. Let sit a few minutes and then pour into a mold of your choice
  4. Leave in mold to harden (about an hour, but could be more depending on how big your mold is)
  5. Remove from mold and let air dry the rest of the way (I left mine to dry overnight)
I bought two powdered tempera paint colors which cost $4.99 each, one bucket plaster of paris which was $5.99 and one silicon brownie bite mold which was $9.99 to make my chalk. The start up cost is a bit much in craft land but will probably last for 6-8 summers of chalk fun!
(there were two more of each color plus 10 more egg shaped ones not in this photo;
it makes a lot . . . but that was a double recipe)

You can use anything for a mold, toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, plastic easter eggs, etc. I chose a silicon mold because it was very easy to pop the chalk out once it set, and it was a super easy clean up. I also tried an egg carton but found that if I let them set too long the carton stuck to the chalk and it was no good. Personally for little hands I find the brownie bite size to be perfect!


2 comments:

Timbra Wiist said...

so cool!! that is kind of a lot for start up, have you tested out your "6-8 summers of fun" theory on alani yet? let's see, if 12 pieces are left out in rainstorms, another 5 are used for experiments indoors where your kiddo wants to see how fast chalk dissolves in water and you also let your child draw on the your front door (inside) regardless of whether it's summer. . i'd say you've got about 6-8 WEEKS of fun around here :) but, the plus side. . . . it's not made in china (i just had to say it :) AND it's a learning experience before you even get to the fun part :) YOU GO!!!

Jake Koprowski said...

and it's lead free? Awesome!!!