Friday, August 19, 2011

Sidewalk Paint

This past week I had 3 birthdays and very little time to make my gifts so I decided to give one of Asher’s favorite activities.
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Inside the bag are all the ingredients needed to make the paint as well as some paint containers and paint brushes. The containers came as part of a set from Lakeshore Learning. I bought 2 sets (6 cups and brushes each) and then split them 3 ways. I also picked up the Neon food coloring since I figured most people had the basic colors and purple is difficult to achieve. Any food coloring would work. I’ve even used my Wilton cake colors.
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To make the Bag you will need:
12x36 inch rectangle of fabric for bag (surge or zigzag around the edges)
Recipe photo printed as a 3.5 inch square
4.5 inch square of contrast fabric
4.5 inch square of clear vinyl
t-shirt strips or ribbons for a draw string
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I used spray adhesive to attach the photo to the square of fabric and then zig-zagged the photo to the fabric
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Fold the large rectangle in half and place the mounted photo 3 inches from the fold and centered with respect to the left and right edges. Be sure that your text is going the right direction. Place the vinyl square on top of the photo square and pin (not through the photo) to the top layer of the main fabric.
Chalk bag tutorial
Zig zag it in place.
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Now fold it in half with right sides together and sew up both the edges.
Use a ruler to cut a 2 inch square out of each corner. The two inches do not include the seam allowance so be sure to measure 2 inches from the seam and 2 inches from the bottom.
Chalk bag tutorial 2
pull the corners where the 2 cuts intersect away from each other so that the seam and the fold at the bottom of the bag are aligned. Your raw edge should be a straight line. Pin this in place and the sew and either zig-zag or surge off the raw edge.049
Without ironing your photo, carefully iron your side seams open then fold the top of the bag over to make a 3.5 inch hemChalk bag tutorial3
With the bag inside out use the edge of your pressure foot along the fabric edge and sew all the way around the hem. Then stitch a second line parallel to the first about a half an towards the edge. These two stitch lines make a casing for a drawstring.054056
Turn the bag right side out and use a seam ripper to open the side seams between the two casing lines.
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Feed the drawstrings through the casing and your bag is finished!064
Fill it up with all the ingredients, as well as some containers and brushes and you have a great gift or fun sunny day activity for your own family.
If you make your own we would love to see it. Please add it to our flickr group
Ruth

21 comments:

  1. And this is what you do when you only have a little time?!? You could build a whole house or a kitchen if you had a lot of time. (Oh, you already did that!).
    -Laurie (I don't know why Google is calling me iuytu)

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  2. Hi Ruth,
    Thank you so much for sharing this! I first saw the photo on Pinterest (and pinned it bcs it's so fantastic), and then shared it on the Smarties Facebook page (crediting you 100% and linking to this article- of course!). You can see the post here -> http://www.Facebook.com/Smarties
    Thanks again. So fun!
    Kind regards,
    Liz Dee
    (Director of Digital Media at Smarties Candy Company)

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  3. This is a great blog. You have gorgeous ideas and I very much enjoy the photos explaining a lot regarding "how to do".

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  4. What a great idea! Does it rinse away easily? We have a fairly strict HOA and they'd flip if the dye stained the concrete.

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  5. It was on my driveway for the entire summer since there was no rain here in TX. The color faded but when it finally did rain you could tell anything had been there at all.

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  6. I'm happy to have come across this recipe!! I was looking for a semi-perm solution (at least a weekend) to "paint" the yellow brick road on our driveway! I'm throwing myself my 40th in May and have officially started the planning. I want folks to experience the fun from the moment they arrive! Thank you again!

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  7. What a truly awesome gift...and thanks for the recipe :) I featured this today! Come by and check it out and to see the other toddler art projects I highlighted...

    http://www.snugasabugbaby.com/toddlerartprojects/

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  8. Just saw this on Pinterest and I think it's an excellent idea for kids gifts...but what does "T" mean? Tablespoon? Teaspoon? Or something else???

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  9. Emily, the large T is Tablespoon. Ruth made this paint today and brought it to my house for a playdate...the kids had a blast with it and my driveway looks so pretty now! Such a great playdate toy AND an excellent kids' gift.

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  10. Great! Thank you so much for the clarification. I'm definitely going to try it out once it gets warmer here. :)

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  11. Do you mix it and paint or do you have to cook it? Cornstarch usually falls to the bottom. I could really use a recipe like this. My kids go through Crayola paint like crazy in the warm months. We paint everything outside.

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    Replies
    1. Mix it up right before they use it. Then they will keep it mixed with their paint brushes. No cooking nessesary.

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  12. We made a double batch of paints yesterday and our girls had so much fun! Thank you for sharing!

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  13. Just made this today and my daughter LOVES it!! We are on our second double batch! Thank you for the recipe!

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  14. We just tried the paint and it was fabulous! My kids had a blast mixing new colors and making works of art on our driveway.

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  15. This is great paint! We used this is our recent Fly Swatter Painting activity! My son loved it! I'll also be using this at our next play-date. Thank-You so much for posting it. I linked back and mentioned your blog in my post.

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  16. I included this in my DIY roundup post today -- thanks for sharing! Love this. :) http://www.peteandbuzz.com/2013/03/MarchDIYRoundup.html

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  17. Thank you for sharing this interesting and informative article, painting with airless spray gun will be faster and more interesting!
    regards,
    Graco Spray Gun

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