How to Make Sidewalk Chalk

Remember this? It’s meant to be a mold for making ice that will fit down into a water bottle easily. But this came as part of a stash-busting package I received from Dollar Store Crafts. The rules were that I needed to use the items in the package in some way to make crafts.

I kept looking and looking at it trying to decide just what I wanted to use it for.  I was pretty sure I was going to be molding something in it but I wanted to find just the right thing.  Then it hit me.  Sidewalk chalk!

How to Make Sidewalk Chalk

Don’t have one of these ice cube trays? You can usually find them at your local dollar store but a regular ice cube tray will work too. I have other suggestions below.

How to make sidewalk chalk:

2 parts plaster of Paris

a little less than 1 part of water

coloring:  this could be food coloring, powdered or liquid tempera paint, acrylic craft paint,  or even Koolaid powder (the kind with no sugar)

Instructions:

Mix it up and pour it into your molds.  Molds can vary but obviously, here I used the ice cube tray mentioned above. It was the perfect size and shape for making some sidewalk chalk.  I lined the tray sections with waxed paper to be sure that the plaster would release from the mold easily.

I also made some using leftover plastic Easter eggs.  I put the egg together and taped it shut to be sure there was a good seal.  I used my Dremel (before I put the egg together) to drill a hole in one end so there would be a space to pour in the plaster.

Other things that work are toilet paper rolls (cover one end with plastic wrap or aluminum foil or something similar taped in place), paper cups, Jello or sand molds, cookie cutters (again cover up one end), plastic packing containers like the ones from mini cupcakes or other purchased items, muffin tins, and so on.