Rainbow Glitter Sidewalk Paint Recipe

Make some gorgeous rainbow paints for outdoor creativity using this oh-so-easy glitter sidewalk paint recipe! So much fun on long summer days outside and washes off easily with water when finished, so what’s not to love?!

We are big fans of DIY play and art recipes and have tried out dozens now since Cakie was a baby. It’s so much fun to experiment with making materials with just a few ingredients from the kitchen cupboard and it’s amazing how many different things you can make at home.

One paint recipe that I have been saving up for a summer’s day is the simple, yet wonderful, sidewalk/ pavement paint recipe! I first read about this on Kids’ Activities Blog where they made fizzing sidewalk paint (we are definitely trying that next.) The girls wanted to make glitter paints, so we decided to  experiment with making rainbow glitter sidewalk paints this time around, and they turned out so gorgeous and sparkly!

How to make glitter sidewalk paint:

Simply use 1 part corn flour (corn starch in the US) to 1 part water to make the base paint mixture!

I filled some muffin tin holes half full of cornflour/ starch and then topped each one up with roughly the same amount of water.

Then we stirred in a small amount of Wilton Gel Colours  (this links to our favourites that we always use in play recipes) in rainbow shades until the colours had blended well and were the right intensity. Start with a  small amount and add more, to be sure of not using too much colouring.

Then simply sprinkle in plenty of glitter in corresponding colours and stir it through! For some colours we didn’t have the matching glitter to use, so we opted for silver which adds a general sparkle and looked great.

Take outside with a pot of water for cleaning the brushes, add some thick and thin real art brushes and paint, paint, paint!

Anything that’s washable is fair game, so it wasn’t long until our paving slabs and legs and feet had all been decorated with the sparkly paints!

Cakie added flower and rainbow murals to brighten up our garden space beautifully.

I painted my name and they joined in, practising letters of the alphabet, shapes and patterns. As the paints dried they looked chalky and soft with a lovely pastel colour left behind. The glitter sparkled so nicely in the sun and really made the paints that little bit more special and magical! It was hard to pick up in the photographs just how very pretty the scene looked after they had finished painting.

Baby Bean got stuck right in too, painting the ground and steps and later her legs and feet too! I worried a little that the paint would stain their skin, but after 3 or 4 minutes in the bath they came straight off. The paint on the sidewalk/ paving slabs washed straight off with water, but we decided to leave most of it as their designs are so lovely!

What they are learning as they play:

creativity: creating and combing media, painting outside, body and nature art

science: mixing dry and wet materials to make new products, following recipes, experimenting

Cakie: 4.10

Pop: 3.3

Bean: 16 mos

See our homemade edible fingerpaint recipe! Perfect for babies and toddlers who are just starting their creative journey!

And how about scented edible jello paints! They smell and taste delicious!

And a super-easy everyday home-made paint recipe with just 3 ingredients and no cooking!