By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”. 

Summertime. Sandals, hula hoops, water balloons, picnics, and filling the sidewalks with colorful chalk art.

What’s even more fun than gettin’ down and drawing on concrete? Making your own sidewalk chalk first, and it’s easy!

You’ll need:

• Plaster of Paris 
• Food coloring, tempura paints, or acrylic paints 
• Water
• Mixing containers and a spoon
• Molds

You could probably figure out what to do just from that list, but I have some tips to go with it.

You’ll use two parts water to one part Plaster of Paris. Pour the water into your mixing container, and add the coloring agent you’ve chosen to that. Then add the plaster of Paris.

Add your color to water

Add Plaster

The thing about plaster of Paris is that stirring it makes it set up faster. Adding the color to the water means less stirring, and more time to work with the goop. Warm or hot water also makes the plaster set up more quickly.

Wet your mold before pouring the plaster into it, to make the chalk easier to remove when it’s hardened.  Don’t worry if you slop a little on or around the edges; it will flake off easily later. Give the mold a jiggle or two, to settle the plaster and smooth it out.

Molds can be anything you like. Ice cube trays work well, as would popsicle or candy molds. I’ve even used the tubes from inside toilet paper, wrapped in plastic film, and just torn them off when the plaster was set. By happy circumstance, I ran across molds made specifically for making chalk at Goodwill.

The last step is to let the plaster set up firmly. Don’t get impatient to see your chalk “all done” and try to turn it out before its time, or you’ll get what I got—broken chalk!