Egg Shell Sidewalk Chalk

In the past few months I've discovered Pinterest and now completely addicted and inspired to try lots of different crafts, but I only have a handful of free hours during the week -- so I've picked out some easy ones.  This is one of them.  I like to make crafts that I don't have to throw away.  I always feel guilty throwing a masterpiece in the trash, because I just don't have the room to keeps lots of stuff.  You probably have all of the materials in your house to make this craft.  You don't even need a trip to the craft store!

Age: 3+
Time: 30 minutes + 2 days to dry before you can use the chalk.
Cleanup: Manageable.  My kitchen was back to normal in a few minutes.  My son just had to wash his hands.
What I Like This Craft:  It's always to fun to use the stuff you make.  Especially when you're 5 years old!  Plus we already had everything in the kitchen.
What You Need:

• Eggshells from about 6 large eggs (clean, dried, and without the inner shell lining)
• 1 tsp flour
• 1 tsp very hot water (water from my Keurig was perfect!)
• Something to crush the shells (we used my kitchen mallet)
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Ziplock bag
• Paper Towel
• Optional:
• Petroleum Jelly
• Cookie Cutter
• Food coloring, tempura paint, or glitter

Step 1:
Put the egg shells in the bag and smash them until they become a fine powder.  It took us a good 5-10 minutes to get the shells pretty fine.  We also had lots of the egg lining to sift through.  I ended up using a small strainer to push the shells through.  This separated the egg from the lining and crushed up the shell a little more.

Step 2:
Take one heaping spoonful (we used a large spoon/tablespoon) of the egg shells and mix it with one teaspoon of hot water and teaspoon of flour.  Using this ratio, mix in all of your eggshells.  Mix until well blended. In the end, we used 3 spoonfuls of shells, 3 tsp of flour, and 3 tsp of hot water.

Step 3: (optional)
Mix in a coloring.  We used a drop of poster paint.  We also decided to add in lots of glitter.

Step 4:
Spread the petroleum jelly on the cookie cutter.  On a paper towl, fill the cookie cutter with the mixture.  All of our egg mixture fit into this single cookie cutter.  If you are not using a shape, you can simply roll the mixture into a log.

Step 5:
Let dry for about 2-3 days on the paper towel.

That's it!  Note:  the eggshell chalk it a little scratchy.  I wouldn't use it on a chalkboard.  Save this for the sidewalk!

-Rose
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