We love you to the moon and back!
Earlier this year, the kids and I succumbed to yet another pinterest phenomenon: Sidewalk Chalk Photography. In the heat of a Texas June day, we decided to make chalk paint, paint the driveway in the likeness of the Dallas skyline, and make one of the most adorable Father’s Day cards ever!
Chalk Paint:
- 4-5 cups Cornstarch
- Food Coloring (we used gel)
- 4-5 Cups of water
To make: Mix roughly 1 cup cornstarch to 1 cup water with 10-12 drops of food coloring (or until the desired color). We had no problem washing away the color when we were finished. However, we used Tempura Paint in black for the outline, and that took about 2 weeks to fully disappear.
Additional Supplies:
- Camera
- 4-5 Large Sponge Paintbrushes
- Ladder
- Patience
We only had a few hours to create the chalk surprise, so unfortunately we had to deal with the sun and very hot concrete. I made the outline of the Dallas Skyline and the kids painted it in with the freshly made chalk paint and sponge brushes. The kids lasted about 30 minutes (which is 20 minutes longer than I thought) and I continued on. After while in the sun, I decided that to leave some of the buildings empty was artistically pleasing. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact I was drenched from had to toe and ready to call it a day. It was an artistic choice :)
We were ready to pose for the photoshoot! All I needed to do was position the ladder in the alleyway in order to get to a perspective where the driveway was flat. I never was able to find this position, but it was close enough!
Posing the children was the most enjoyable part of the whole event. The kids loved coming up with silly poses and trying them out. However, we had to wait until 5:00 to get the shots as the concrete was so hot! Which gave us only 30 minutes before dad arrived. We quickly added stars and a moon to create the look of night and took photos in 30 second bursts! Oh the joys of a Texas summer. Hot enough to fry an egg! In the end, with a little photo editing to darken the photos and some text from a beloved book, we had a magical gift to give a wonderful father.
When we were done, we just washed the chalk away.
