Try-It Tuesday: Make Homemade Chalk

The chalk may look small in this picture, but these are the size of toilet paper tubes.

You need 3 ingredients to make chalk (2 if you just want white): Plaster of Paris, Water, and Food Coloring.

This 25 pound box of Plaster of Paris cost me a little over $10 from Lowe's, whereas they were selling a 4 pound box for almost $7. If you figure it takes 3/4 C to make one stick of toilet paper tube sized chalk, then 25 pounds is overkill. But we use Plaster of Paris for a variety of other projects and I was thinking I would maybe have a chalk making playdate this summer.

Who wants to come to our chalk making playdate?

I just used old whipped topping containers & plastic spoons to do my mixing in (could be tossed if it hardens & you can't clean, but it will clean easily if you clean while it's wet.)

The I lined the toilet paper tunes with a piece of wax paper that is about 6"x6" and tape the bottom with duct tape.

The great thing about re-purposing these items that would have gone to the trash or recycling is that if they do get ruined in the process I am not out any money I would have spent on buying supplies, plus it adds no additional cost to this project.

Mixing it is simple enough, it's 2 PARTS Plaster of Paris to 1 PART Water and add enough food coloring to get your desired color. If you add a lot of food coloring you may need to add a bit for plaster of paris since the food coloring in a liquid and will thin it.

I found that it takes about 3/4 C Plaster of Paris to make fill one tube. Since I was making 2 of each color, the math was easier. 1 1/2 C of plaster of paris and 3/4 C of water to make to tubes.

As you can see the green ones are smaller, I tried making these with only 1/2 C each, which was not quite enough. I used 3/4 C  each in the yellow chalk.


I think I may do this again with my kids and let my daughter experiment with mixing colors, that is always something she find fun.




Don't forget to check out my post on Northern Cheapskate about How to Make Chalk Paint.