The Problem with Pinterest

Well, here's another idea I found on Pinterest. (I'm starting to think this should be a tag in and of itself.) First, let me say that it had never occurred to me to use sidewalk chalk for photo props, and I think this idea is pretty brilliant. When I told Mia about the idea to write "Kindergarten" on the driveway and then have her lie down next to it for a fun end-of-school-year photo, she was excited to try it out!

However, the problem lies in actually pulling off a successful photo. (Things are always easier in theory than in actuality, right?) Naturally, the post that this links to doesn't give any directions on how to produce the cute photo results, so I had to wing it. That didn't seem like it would be terribly difficult but the next obstacle was the weather. It was unseasonably cool on the last couple days of school, and she was actually wearing jeans and long-sleeve tops! That didn't seem very summery, and I didn't want to make her miserable, so I didn't even suggest trying the photo "session" on those days. Then, it rained. And then we had Daddy's birthday to celebrate so her portrait session was placed on the back burner.

Finally, there was a day when it rained, and then cleared up, and the driveway was dry enough to give it a whirl. The sun was shining at that point, and I thought we were golden! I grabbed a piece of pink sidewalk chalk and wrote "Kindergarten" as artistically as possible, and then I went to grab my camera. When I returned, Mia had taken orange chalk and drawn hearts all around the lettering. At first, I was caught off guard, and if I'm being honest, I was a teensy bit upset because I had worked to make it look "Pinterest perfect." But, then I decided to just roll with it because this was, after all, about her. ("It's not about me!" is one of those mommy mantras that pops up from time to time, and I really hope I'm not alone in this.)

Unfortunately, I quickly realized that there can be too much of a good thing, in this case, sunshine. Seriously? Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but that sun we were pining for came back to bite us. The first few photos I took included Mia squinting into the sunlight, resulting in some less than ideal portraits. She didn't really look thrilled to have just finished kindergarten. Instead she looked like she was in pain. Rats!

Obviously, didn't want us to remember kindergarten as the year that made her quite constipated, (if you go by facial expressions, alone, this is how I am reading that look) so I then decided to have her sit up for a different view point that would hopefully avoid the squinty-eyed-make-it-fast-you're-killing-me-here-Mooooooooooom look. It wasn't the shot I was really after, but it was a definite improvement.

Undeterred, and still hoping to get that lying down shot of her next to the word "Kindergarten," we decided to wait until it was slightly cloudier before trying again. By then, she wanted to wear socks and shoes with her capris, which was a look I wasn't totally digging. But again, I let it slide because it wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, and it seemed like that was what she was offering me, a take-it-or-leave-it opportunity. Since I was really wanting that picture that looked so perfect on Pinterest, darn it, I decided to take it! Well, this is as good as it gets. I haven't figured out yet, if having a step stool was helpful or not, but it was something I experimented with to try to get the right angle. Anyway, Mia at least looks happy in those last few attempts, so I will try to overlook those silly socks and shoes.

Someday, we may a whole album or photo book full of these goofy end-of-school-year memories to display at her graduation. (I really am trying to let go of some of my idealistic expectations, but it's a process.) Hopefully, we'll learn a few little tips along the way. And, I'm guessing some of them won't even be about achieving picture perfect results. ("It's not about me!")

DIY: Tempera Paint

Mia had the day off from school on Friday, and I already had the homemade watercolor paints ready to go. I also decided that was a good day to try out this tempera paint recipe that I had seen on Pinterest. To start off with, I should explain that the original recipe poster just said to use colored chalk, but I figured this was the perfect way to use up the little stubs of sidewalk chalk that are left over from last season. The larger size of the chalk would probably explain why it took me so much longer than it took her to make this paint. I will also say up front that this is messy as well as time-consuming to create, so you have been warned.

That said, it worked nicely, and the consistency was exactly what I had hoped for, very much like when I mix up powdered tempera paint. I am always up for trying a new paint recipe and since this is essentially how the old masters made their paint (just assume they that used whatever natural materials were available to add pigment in place of sidewalk chalk, okay?), I rationalized that making this type of egg tempera paint for the kids could also serve as a little art history lesson. (I probably have not mentioned this here before, but once upon a time I was an art major...) I actually only explained this to Mia, but she seemed to get the idea. So, here's the paint recipe. History lessons are optional.

{Crushed sidewalk chalk produces a vibrant palette!}

Materials:

• sidewalk chalk bits
• water
• egg yolk
• zippered baggie/s
• mallet/hammer
• kitchen towel
• spoons for mixing
• muffin tin
• paper or cardboard
• paintbrushes
• containers for soaking chalk

Directions:

1. Place each color of chalk into its own container and add enough water to soak the chalk. I used plastic bowls. (Note: Our sidewalk chalk is Crayola brand, but any colored chalk should work.)
2. Let set awhile. The original blogger said to do this for 15 minutes, but I found our chalk much tougher (maybe since it was larger?) and I ended up soaking it for 5 hours, significantly longer than 15 minutes!
3. Break up the chalk, one color at a time. At first I tried to do this by chinking away at it with spoons, but I quickly became frustrated. Then, I decided to try the original blogger's method of putting it in a zippered baggie, wrapping it in a towel, and then pounding it with a mallet. (She said to use a hammer, but once I opened the tool box, I saw the mallet and decided that was even better!) Tip: I found that I could wash out the baggie and then re-use it several times. I ended up tearing the first one after 3 tries, but the second one lasted me until I had a dozen paint colors in our muffin tin "palette."
4. Empty the crushed chalk into a muffin tin cup and stir in some egg yolk. I used about 1 teaspoon per color, which ended up being 3 egg yolks for 12 colors. Tip: If I had realized both kids would want to paint, I would have divided the colors into two paint palettes!
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all other colors of paint. 
6. Use paint immediately. We experimented with construction paper, drawing paper, and cereal boxboard panels, and all worked fine with this paint. Tip: Protect clothes with smocks or paint shirts or have kids wear old clothing before getting started. Tip: Cereal box liners work well for protecting your table. You can even wipe them down and re-use them, or you can toss them if you prefer. Tip: Since raw eggs are used in this paint, you will want to make sure that everyone washes hands after handling it, just in case, to prevent the spread of Salmonella.
7. I believe that the paintings themselves should hold up well, unlike those made with other food-based paints that we have tried. It worked for Michelangelo, after all! Currently our left over paints are in the refrigerator, and I see no reason why we can't continue to use them for a couple of weeks.

{Egg tempera paint on cereal boxboard}

{Egg tempera paint on construction paper}

DIY Colored "Sand Art" Jars

I had originally found this idea online while searching for rainbow crafts to possibly do for Mia's Care Bears party. I decided it wasn't a good activity to try with a large group of kids in my small dining room, but it was a perfect spring break activity for my own two kiddos. These turned out really pretty, and you would never know that they aren't even made of actual sand, but rather, colored salt. The most notable benefit to using salt instead of sand is that it is way, way cheaper. The cost was the only thing that had prevented us from making colored sand art jars in the past. Making your own faux "colored sand" is not difficult to do at home, but it is kind of messy. I think the process was fun, and the end results are beautiful, so it is totally worth a small amount of spilled salt, in my opinion.

One thing I did learn is that craft is better suited to school age kids rather than preschoolers, especially if you are using somewhat large jars as we did. Mia, at age six, had more patience for this than her little brother did. That's really a no-brainer, but I was hopeful that Logan would be able to fill his jar. He only managed 3 layers before he started being kind of naughty and salt was flying all over the place, and I decided to cut him off. Then, I packaged up Logan's left over "colored sand" in baggies in case he decides to try again tomorrow. Mia, on the other hand, ended up with 6 layers. Maybe the rule of thumb is that kids can make one layer per year of age? Okay, I'm not sure that is true, but that is how it turned out at our house.

As usual, they had different ideas for how to do things. Logan produced 3 layers in 3 distinctly separate colors, and Mia made her six layers alternating just two colors: pink and purple. However, she didn't make the layers all look the same. She colored for different lengths of time to produce different intensities of pigmentation so there is a gradation of color from darker to lighter as she went. I don't know if this was intentional or if it was the product of getting tired with the process and trying to speed things along. Either way, she was pleased with her finished "sand art" jar.

{"Sand Art" Jars by Mia, Age 6 and Logan, Age 3}

Materials:

• colored chalk
• paper
• salt
• glass containers with lids or corks
• cookie sheets (optional)
• Super Glue/hot glue (optional)

Directions:

1. Pour some salt onto the center of a piece of paper. We used black construction paper, which will later be re-used for chalk drawings, but any paper will work for this. Tip: To contain the mess, we first laid our papers on cookie sheets. I highly recommend using cookie sheets. The rim helps keep the salt from ending up all over the table and floor. (It's not perfect, but it helps quite a bit.)
2. Rub colored chalk back and forth over the salt until it is the color you want. We used sidewalk chalk for this, but you could use the smaller chalk that is intended for use on chalk boards. Tip: Show younger kids how to color with the sides of the chalk to make this process go a bit faster. Tip: You may want to re-center the salt occasionally during the coloring process since it tends to spread outward. To do this, just slightly fold up the edges of the paper until the salt slides back to the center. Then, add more color as desired.
3. Once the chalk is the color saturation you are looking for, carefully roll the paper into a funnel, and slowly pour the colored salt into your glass container. Older kids may be able to do this on their own, but adults should help little ones. Tip: We used these fun square glass bottles with cork stoppers that I found at the Salvation Army for 99 cents apiece. I had searched high and low for my old set of glass spice jars because I thought they would be perfect for this, but I have yet to come across them. You could also use baby food jars or small canning jars or any other glass container that has some sort of lid. Tip: If you want, you can turn and twist your container as you pour for different layered effects. Mia did this while I poured each layer.
4. Turn the paper over for the next color, and repeat steps 1 through 3. Do this as many times as needed to fill your jar or bottle. Tip: While filling, make sure not to shake the container or you may end up with a muddy brown mixture instead of vibrant rainbow colors.
5. Once your container is filled, place your lid on top and make sure that it is secure. Tip: Since we were using corks, I added a small ring of Super Glue to them before inserting them. You could also add Super Glue even if your container has a screw-on lid if it gives you peace of mind. Hot glue would work as an alternative if you do not have Super Glue.
6. Find a nice place to display your colored "sand art" jars. Ours look lovely on the sunny kitchen windowsill.

{Demonstrating the "proper technique"...}

{And here's Little Man's method. I love how her look seems to say, "You are sooo doing that the wrong way! He did switch after seeing a demonstration of "proper technique."}

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Experiment #3

The third time's a charm, right? I think that I did, in fact, nail it this time. My first sidewalk chalk experiment was successful, but time-consuming due to the large size of the chalk. Also, I was concerned that the cost of the powdered tempera was a deterrent for some people. I wanted to find a more cost-effective solution that would also allow me to mix colors as I pleased. Then, I thought about the second experiment, and how it was good for color mixing, just not setting up as "chalk." I realized there must be a way to combine the Plaster of Paris from experiment #1 with the food colors from experiment #2 in order to get the best of both worlds. So, I looked online to see if anyone had done this before. Bingo! I found directions from this blogger, who also happened to share my dream of making shaped sidewalk chalks.

I used approximately 2 1/2 bags of Plaster of Paris mix. The box contained 4 bags and cost about $4 at Wal-mart. After two go-rounds, I made a total of 22 egg-shaped chalks, which works out to under 12 cents apiece if you are only taking into account the cost of Plaster of Paris. (I did not try to figure in the cost of food coloring. If you don't have some, get it because it is a super craft investment. Today, I saw that it was on sale at Kroger and 2 boxes were only $4.) This is comparable to the cost of store-bought sidewalk chalk, and this gives you the bonus of making it whatever shape you like! You can see that my egg-shaped chalks nest very nicely in a re-used egg carton. Wouldn't that make a cute gift for some of your favorite little people? So, now that I know how to make chalk with this method, I am way more excited by homemade chalk, and I can actually see myself doing this again and again.

{Homemade egg-shaped sidewalk chalk! Just in time for Easter!}

Materials:

• molds (I used 2 Jell-o Jiggler egg-shaped molds.)
• 1 cup Plaster of Paris
• 3/4 cup water
• container to mix in
• spoon
• funnel
• food coloring
• cake pan (optional)

Directions:

1. In a container (preferably something you aren't worried about "ruining"), mix 1 cup Plaster of Paris with 3/4 cup water. Tip: I used an old margarine tub.
2. Add several drops of food coloring. You can use any color or combination of colors that you like. For my first batch I used 15 drops of yellow. Stir until color is well blended.
3. Snap together your egg-shaped molds (or whatever molds you have -- I have not tried it, but I am sure you could do this in muffin tins, cake pop pans, or even Dixie cups. Or try toilet paper tubes as I did in experiment #1.) Tip: If desired, set the molds in a cake pan or on a cookie sheet to help catch the inevitable drips and dribbles.
4. Using a funnel, pour your Plaster mixture into the egg molds (or whatever mold you are using). Once filled, tap to get rid of air bubbles. I found that one batch filled about 3 and 1/2 of my egg cups. Tip: A skewer was occasionally helpful for getting some of the lumpier bits to pass through the funnel.
5. Set aside to firm up. You can remove from the molds after 24 hours. Tip: I used a butter knife to help loosen up the edges of the molds in order to get them open. Then, let them continue to air-dry for about another 48 hours before using the sidewalk chalk.
6. Repeat as desired. The first time I made these sidewalk chalks, I did three batches: yellow (15 drops), blue (15 drops), and green (15 drops). Once the molds were emptied and cleaned out, I made 3 more batches: orange (8 drops yellow + 7 drops red), red (20 drops), and neon purple (10 drops).
7. Enjoy your shaped sidewalk chalk! Note: In the photo, you can sort of see how my original batches have some color that has sort of risen to the tops as they dried. I am not sure why, but I don't think if affects how well the chalk work. The colors appear to be distributed throughout the whole chalks, and more importantly, I tested these out and they work beautifully! Plus, they are not dusty.

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Experiment #2 (FAIL)

Update: I see that this post is getting a lot of traffic, so I want everyone to know that this recipe does NOT work for making sidewalk chalk. It will produce sidewalk paint. If you are looking for a sidewalk chalk recipe that does work, I have found two: this one and this one. Thanks for visiting! I hope you find what you are looking for.

A few days ago, my sister-in-law, Kristin asked me if I had ever made homemade sidewalk chalk. Ironically, I was in the midst of waiting for my first batch to harden up, when she gave me a new recipe to try out. It sounded a lot like the sidewalk paint that we had made last spring so I was a bit skeptical that it would harden up and produce actual, usable chalk. Regardless, I figured it was worth a try. If it was successful, it would be a bit cheaper than my first recipe for sidewalk chalk, and it would be simpler to get more variety of colors with food coloring instead of powdered tempera paint. Plus, if it didn't work out, I would only be out a few cents and some time, so it wasn't a big deal.

When I tried it out, I first lined the tins with circles of wax paper that I had cut with scissors because I was afraid the chalk would stick. This turned out to be unnecessary I think. I had to wait a total of 5 days for it to dry out. On the second day, there was about 1/4" colored liquid on top of an "oobleck" type pseudo-solid. My skepticism continued. The day after that, there was less liquid, and it the stuff beneath it seemed firmer to the touch. So, my hopes were raised that this experiment would work. Then, the day after that, some of the "chalks" looked almost dry. After two more days, they all appeared to be dry, and they were starting to separate from the sides of the tins. The weird thing that my husband pointed out is that they appeared to be growing patches of green mold on top. Gross, right? However, I was cautiously optimistic that if I could just get them out unscathed, this could actually work. That was the dilemma. I decided to put an inch or so of hot water in my sink and then let the pan soak in it for 1 minute. Then, I used a butter knife to gently remove the chalks from the muffin tin. All but two made it through this process without disintegrating. However, the "chalk" felt very, very soft, so I doubted it would be usable.

{Homemade Sidewalk Paint -- BEFORE it dried into useless dust!}

I tentatively tried one or two "chalks" on a piece of paper and it immediately crumbled to bits. Figuring this for a lost cause, and a messy one at that, I gave Mia a cookie sheet and a piece of paper, so she could give the "chalk" a go. She ended up with a pile of pink "chalk" dust, which she enjoyed playing with, piling up, and smooshing back down, dragging it around the cookie sheet with her fingers until I decided enough was enough. She had pink "chalk" dust on her face and in her hair. I say "chalk" because it had turned out to be essentially colored corn starch after the water evaporated, not at all what I was hoping for, but truthfully, not an unexpected result. In the end, I don't feel that this is a failure because it didn't produce the desired effect. Really, I know that this will make perfectly good sidewalk paints, plus now I have the idea to do them in muffin tins instead of the glass jars we previously used, and this is definitely safer to do with kids.

{AFTER: Nothing more than colored cornstarch -- utterly useless as"sidewalk chalk!"}

The Bottom Line: If you decide to do this, choose a nice sunny day, and please know that you will be making sidewalk paints that need to be used immediately, NOT some sidewalk chalks. You will likely want to mix up your paints while you are outside, to keep spillage to a minimum. You will also need paintbrushes or sponging for painting the sidewalk.

{Here is my craft FAIL -- just in case you thought it never happens.}

Materials Needed to Make Sidewalk Paint (not chalk):

• 12 cup muffin tin
• 1 1/2 cups cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups water
• container for mixing
• spoon/s for mixing
• food coloring
• paint brushes or sponges
• funnel (optional)

Directions:

1. In a container, mix equal parts cornstarch and water. I used 1 1/2 cups of each, which will fill 12 muffin cups approximately half full. Divide into the muffin cups. Tip: A funnel is helpful for pouring.
2. Add a few drops of food coloring to each muffin cup to get desired colors. I used no more than 3 drops per muffin cup. Tip: Food coloring may stain skin and clothing, so be mindful of this when using it.
3. Mix up each color, and have kids paint on the sidewalk or driveway using paintbrushes or sponges. Tip: When we did this last year, we kept the paints in jars with lids, shook them up as needed, and re-used the paints.
4. That's it. Enjoy your sidewalk paint. Don't bother waiting around for this recipe to harden up and produce "sidewalk chalk." You will just be disappointed.

Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Experiment #1

I am getting a bit of spring fever, feeling like winter definitely needs to finish up around these parts. So, when I found a recipe for sidewalk chalk on Pinterest, I decided I needed to try it out. Brett teased me when he saw this on my daily to-do list. "You can't make sidewalk chalk," he insisted. This just convinced me that I could and I would succeed at making some sidewalk chalk for the kids.

I had been saving TP tubes for awhile and I had powdered tempera paint already. I did need to purchase some Plaster of Paris, which I got at Wal-mart for around $4, so that wasn't a huge investment, especially considering I used only 1/4 of the box. We had masking tape at the ready, which just left one thing that stumped me: "greaseproof paper." What, I wondered, is the American equivalent of this? I decided that it would either have to be parchment paper or wax paper, and since parchment is wonderful for baking, and generally speaking, wax paper is something I would use more often for crafts, I went with wax paper. This seemed like the right choice. However, if I did this again, I would try duct tape in place of the masking tape so as to prevent leaks since I learned while doing this to not skimp on the masking tape.

{The Finished Sidewalk Chalk}

Materials:

• toilet paper tubes
• wax paper
• tape (masking or duct)
• 1 cup Plaster of Paris
• 1 cup water
• powdered tempera paint
• funnel (optional, but definitely helpful)
• container for mixing (preferably one you don't care about)
• spoons (for mixing)
• somewhere flat to let your chalk set up (I used a cake pan.)

Directions:

1. Completely cover one end of an empty toilet paper tube with tape, making sure there are no openings. Tip: Masking tape works, but I am thinking duct tape will work even better for this.
2. Line the inside of the tube with wax paper. Tip: I found that the best way to do this was to tear a piece of the wax paper so that it was slightly longer than the height of the tube, fold it into thirds, cut the wax paper into 3 pieces, and then roll one piece into a tube. I also added the leftover bits to the bottoms of the tubes, layering them on top of the tape. I don't think this is ideal, though, since some of the wax paper bits are still imbedded into the ends of the chalk.
3. In a container, mix 1 cup of Plaster of Paris with 1 cup of water. Add the tempera paint and stir. The original directions suggested starting with 1 tablespoon, and adding more as needed. 
4. Stand the tubes straight up, so that the tape side is down. (Tip: I did this in a cake pan, and I wished that I had first lined it with wax paper. Make sure that whatever container you choose will not be needed for several days.) Then, pour the mixture in, and tap to get rid of air bubbles. Tip: A funnel was very helpful for pouring.
5. Now you will need to wait. After the Plaster of Paris mixture sets up a bit (I think this was a day or two), you can tear away the cardboard tube and wax paper to allow it to finish drying and hardening. This whole drying process took about 5 days. (Some notes on color mixing: I made a total of 6 chalks. Some were the size of the entire tube and some were a bit shorter due to leakage issues. The first one was pure red tempera paint, and I had added a total of 3 tablespoons to my Plaster of Paris mixture. Half of that was poured into one TP tube, and in the remaining batch, I added 2 tablespoons of blue powdered tempera paint. I mixed this up to make purple, which I poured into my second tube. Then, I washed out the container and mixed up a new batch of water/Plaster mixture, which I added 3 tablespoons of yellow paint to. Again, I poured half of this into a tube, and then added 2 tablespoons of red paint to the remainder, mixing up orange for my fourth tube. After that, I again washed my bowl, and started a final batch of Plaster mixture, to which I added 3 tablespoons of blue paint. The final chalk tube was made by adding 2 tablespoons of yellow paint to the remainder of the blue batch, so it, of course, made green chalk. In the end, I was happy with the color saturation.)

{This is what it looked like while the chalk was setting up.}

Is it worth it to make your own sidewalk chalk?
Honestly, I just wanted to know whether or not this would work. Considering you can purchase ready made chalk for about 10 cents a piece, and it comes in many, many colors, making it probably is not worth the effort for most people. It definitely was a time investment. We didn't just make the chalk and then play with it an hour later. It took several days to set up. Plus, there is cost associated with buying any materials you do not already have.

For me, this wasn't a big deal since it meant only buying the Plaster of Paris, which I knew would get used for other projects in the future. I got four jars of powdered tempera some months back on clearance at Michaels for 99 cents each. I think that was probably a steal at the time. However, if you don't have powdered tempera paint, it may not be worth it to you to invest in this, unless you know that you will use it for other things. (It's great for just mixing up small amounts when the kids want to paint, and you can get the consistency exactly the way that you want it to be.)

For this experiment, I used $1 worth of Plaster of Paris, and I made 6 chalks, so that works out to about 17 cents per chalk, more than what you would likely spend at the store for ready-made sidewalk chalk. However, it is worth noting, that the TP tube chalk is much larger, so it will last longer than store-bought sidewalk chalk, meaning it's not an equivalent comparison.

There are some definite pros to making this chalk that are worth mentioning. This chalk comes out rather large, so in addition to lasting a long time, it is also nice for little hands. There is also the possibility of making shaped chalks in molds, and I am planning to try this with our Jell-o egg molds at some point. The chalk is dry to the touch and quite dust-free, which means it isn't very messy. This is a huge bonus in an art supply. Also, the most important thing to mention, is that it does in fact work as a sidewalk chalk.

Generally speaking, I think homemade art supplies are worth the time and materials to make them. They are usually cheaper and work just as well or better than the store-bought variety. However, I don't think homemade sidewalk necessarily chalk fits into this belief for me. It was a good experiment, and I am glad I tried it so now I know. Other than wanting to possibly try again in some different molds, I don't believe I will be making too much more sidewalk chalk. The bottom line for me is that it is a time-consuming process and it requires space for drying that I don't really have in excess.