by Michelle Vackar, Modern Handmade Child
One of our favorite outside activities at our home is drawing with chalk on the driveway. You can play hopscotch, four-square, and of course draw and create silly stories. My daughters and I were talking one day as we played hopscotch about how to make chalk and I thought to myself, let’s try it! It ended up being quite a lot of fun.
What you will need:
• Toilet paper or paper towel tubes
• Scissors
• Duct tape
• Wax paper
• Small bucket or disposable container to make the recipe
• ¾ cup of warm water
• 1 ½ cups Plaster of Paris
• 2-3 tablespoons of tempera paint
• Paper bag or a “mess mat”
** we made six tubes of chalk – we simply doubled the above recipe.**
Step 1: If you are using paper towel tubes, cut each tube in half, so it is roughly the length of a toilet paper roll tube.
Step 2: Cover one end of each tube with duct table to hold the contents within.
Step 3: Cut as many pieces of wax paper as you have tubes. Roughly 6 inches X 6 inches. Roll the wax paper loosely and insert into the tubes so as to effectively line the tubes. The top of the wax paper will be higher than the tubes. The wax paper liner will keep the chalk mixture from sticking to the cardboard tubes and will eventually be peeled off.
Step 4: Pour the warm water into your bucket. Sprinkle the Plaster of Paris over the water and stir the mixture with a plastic spoon. The Plaster of Paris roughly starts hardening within 20-30 minutes, so you need to work fast so that it does not harden too quickly.
Step 5: Next you will want to pour the tempera paint into the Plaster of Paris mixture and stir so that it is mixed thoroughly. If you would like brighter colors add more tempera paint into the mixture. We wanted to make a variety of colors of chalk, so we spooned about 1/2-3/4 cup of Plaster of Paris in each separate container and mixed in the different tempera paint colors into each bowl. We ended up making six different colors and next time might mix more.
Step 6: Stand each tube with the tape side down on a cookie sheet/flat baking dish/box lid to make the project easier to transport to a drying location. Pour or spoon the colored Plaster of Paris mixture into the wax paper lined tubes. Lightly tap the sides of the tubes to release the air bubbles (so you do not have holes in your chalk). After you have poured the mixture into the tubes start another color. When done trim the excess wax paper so that it is closer to the cardboard tube.
Step 7: It took 3 days for our chalk to dry. On the last day, we peeled off the duct tape so that the underside could dry. When the chalk dries, peel off the paper tubes and wax paper. Your chalk is ready!
Modern Handmade Child is a seasonal online publication celebrating handmade living in a new way. Our mission is to provide a fun and valuable resource helping families to embrace the handmade way of life, by intertwining the skills and values of days gone by with the trends and technologies of today. Our editors and contributors come together from around the world, including Europe, Australia, Canada, and many parts of the United States. Modern Handmade Child is published quarterly, and available for free at modernhandmadechild.com.
Well, i would never have guessed, thats how its made after all these years of buying it. Thank you for the recipe, I will surely try this out at some point, problably in the christmas school hols, the boys love making stuff.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Susie from
I Just Love That Fabric
Thank you so much !What a great idea!
? this tutorial! Wonderful way to incorporate art and play! I couldn’t help but share on my blog!
Annie from
?Crayon Couture?
It looks like making it is just as fun as coloring with it!! Can’t wait to make this with my kiddos!
Fun! Thanks for sharing!
I love this! I can’t wait to try it with my kids. It looks so much fun!
Beautiful tutorial! Love the sunny pictures! It might be a while before we can make it seeing as how the winter rain is setting in here in Seattle. I can’t wait to make it. I love to make homemade using things we already have, rather than buying new! Cool!
i’ve never seen a tutorial for chalk before! how brilliant! thanks for sharing! totally bookmarking.
Great! I will be making this at home and taking it to playcentre, I am sure this will be a hit with the kids there. Thought of making bi colour chalk by putting one colour in one end and one in the other, what do you reckon? Thanks so much for this post.
Hi, I am a new follower & I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog!! Thanks so much for posting this, I can’t wait to try it :)
This is a fun tutorial! Thanks! I featured you on my blog!
http://aworldofcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/10/homemade-sidewalk-chalk.html
Why isn’t Crayola out of business…lol! Nice job.
I love how big they are- super fun! Thanks so much for this, I’ll be linking.
Absolutely love this & once you have all the supplies it looks so easy to make it in bulk! Thank you for sharing this fun tutorial!
LOVE THIS! Wow. I really enjoy seeing the process of making and applying art materials. I am currently learning a lot of making egg tempera, oils and chalk pastels. This project seems the most fun! :)
This is GREAT! Thanks for sharing!!
I would have never imagined how easy it is to make chalk. looks like its a lot of fun to make.
Looks like a fun project :) Does the chalk wash off easily?
Thanks for sharing! Just thought of making chalk!
This is awesome! Totally going to make these with my little ones!
It’s gotta be done for my little ones
a nice summer activity! better put this on my list!
AWESOME! Thanks, can’t wait to do this!
Great idea. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks to my niece Christina for this link can’t wait to try this.
Thanks so much for this! We go thru TONS of sidewalk chalk so this will come in handy.
Please make sure you get a child safe plaster of paris. I unintensionally bought some once with a scary warning label.
Did you use the liquid or powdered tempura paint? Thank you!!
This has got to be one of the most useful and coolest crafts/tutorial ever! Your kids are cute too :) I am going to share this in my “Have you seen” Friday post! ohh, and I am a new follower of course as well!
This was…what’s the word? Oh yea, AWESOME!!!
Love this! I’m thinking I might have to try this with my students..If I can get away with it!
Please be careful when cleaning up Plaster of Paris–you DO NOT want to pour this down your drain. Either use throwable containers to mix up your “chalk” or let dry in container and then break out later to throw away the excess. Got that tip from someone who learned the hard way the first time I made chalk.
Awesome! Wish I was a kid again!
Makes me wish I had little kids again :) love your blog…so many great ideas! thanks for sharing…
I just came to visit from MomtothescreamingMasses. I’m amazed. This is Fabulous! My boys would love htis. Next step pave driveway. Anyone got instructions? We’re going to need a LOT of space!!!
WARNING: Plaster of Paris has been known to cause cancer.
Thanks for sharing this DIY! It almost makes me wish my guys were kids again too… sort of :)
I’ll have to try this out anyway (some of us just never grow up).
it is GREAT!!!!!
I’m really sorry to say this but I had tons of trouble with this recipe! :( There was too much water and not enough plaster and it started soaking through the molds very quickly, which caused the molds to fall apart. I had to add extra plaster, and the waxed paper didn’t stay in place. Just wanted to let you know… love the idea though and love your blog… just wish this had worked out better! We might get usable chalk with what we managed, I’ll know in a few days! :(
Oh boo that sucks! I am sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you: ( Maybe try again & use less water this time? Good luck!
Great project! I just wanted to let you know that we featured this project on our Facebook page with over 13,000 fans. Wed love it if youd use our Featured Blogger button, available at: http://www.dailycraft.com/thank-you-for-crafting/. Our audience loved the project and we look forward to sharing more from you. Please let us know if you have any questions or projects youd love us to feature! Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing! This post has sure been making the rounds lately-it really is a perfect summer project!
We have lots of projects that would be great for your site & I would love to share them with you: ) My sidebar space is limited to contributors & advertisers but thanks for sharing the button
great tips… :)
Hi! I am a Day Camp Co-ordinator and we are going to be using your tutorial to make homemade chalk next week for upwards of 120 kids!
I am just wondering if you used liquid or powder tempera paint.
Thanks so much for the great idea!
Wow that’s a lot of kids!!!! I suggest emailing the author of this post, Michelle at michelle@himamma.com with any questions since she has experience making the tutorial:)
Good luck!!!!
Oh no! Look up safe handling for plaster of paris before letting kids anywhere near the wet stuff. It can cause severe chemical burns, I believe from alkalinity. Looks like fun but please do read, and post, the danger and safety precautions.
Thank you for sharing Liz-I will do some research!
GREAT project! I found it on Pinterest and have included it in my weekly Pinterest round-up here: http://youareglowing.blogspot.com/2011/07/pinterest-for-diy-crafts.html
This is so cool! Great tip to remember for when I have children!
Sweet! Thanks so much for the recipe, I will make it this weekend with my 5 year old, she will love it!