More DIY Rainbow Crossings in Tempe

The DIY Rainbow Crossing movement continues on the streets of Tempe.  And in my opinion, the latest in the series of chalk rainbows is by far the best!  So I thought it deserved another post.  After seeing photos on the Tempe Facebook page of this fantastic rainbow crossing, I had to get down there and see it for myself.  So when my 19 week old needed to go for a walk in the pram yesterday, I used the opportunity to check it out and take my own photos.

DIY Rainbow Crossing, Samuel Street Tempe.

Kim's Daughter, Hayden on her DIY Rainbow Crossing.

Kim Skildum-Reid created this fantastic DIY Rainbow Crossing across Samuel Street in Tempe.  Samuel Street is probably the widest of the residential streets in Tempe, and is a lovely quiet street, the perfect canvas for a Rainbow Crossing.

As Kim created her crossing out of chalk to achieve this vibrant rainbow, I asked her to share the recipe / technique with us.



"For each stripe, it required:

* 4 cups (600g) Cornflour

* 800-900 ml water

* 1/4 cup flour

* LOTS of food colouring (most batches required a whole bottle)

I mixed each colour in advance in six x 75 cent Kmart buckets. You need to stir gently, as it goes all hard and clumpy when you stir hard. If that happens, just stir gently and it will once again play nice.
We applied it with a paint roller, but it could certainly be done with a paintbrush.
It's a bit subdued at first, but gets really bright when it dries."

IKEA Tempe Rainbow

We also spotted a rainbow on the floor at IKEA Tempe this week.

I'm not sure if they installed it as part of the movement or if it was just a coincidence, but either way I like it.

Chalking the Streets of Tempe

The path across the road from us.

After the removal of Taylor Square's Rainbow Crossing caused so much dismay in the community, the resulting "DIY Rainbow Crossing" movement has created such a wonderful atmosphere around Sydney.

While it hasn't brought the original Rainbow Crossing back (yet), it has already brought about small positive outcomes on a grass roots level.

Adults, children, young adults and families of all descriptions, have come together as a community and hit the streets.  Weeks on we're still seeing colour around the neighborhood, on the Internet and in the newspapers.

Chalking DIY Rainbow Crossings has brought people outside, and working together.

Those who haven't created their own rainbows have been delighted when coming across them, having their photos taken with this chalk art and adding to the community “rainbow” spirit.

The big kids started the drawing, while Ava watched

The timing has been perfect too, with the NSW school holidays coinciding with the movement taking off.  Another positive outcome I've seen is that it has re-invigorated the simple activity of drawing with chalk on the pavement.  "Back in the day", kids didn't have game consoles, iPhones, iPads or laptops.  They played on the footpath with their friends, skipping, playing hopscotch and drawing with chalk.  I hadn't seen any if these activities since I was a kid. But now with all the chalk we have left after drawing our DIY Rainbows, the kids are spending their afternoons together drawing.

When they started out the front of our house.

An impromptu 'chalking' session happened in our street last week.  It started with the Teenagers and Tweens across the road, then my Pre-Schooler wanted to join in as well as the 18 month old and 7 year old from up the street.  After they'd filled the path across the road, they came across our side of the street and covered our path and driveway.

It was wonderful to see such a broad range of ages all playing together outside on a sunny afternoon.  I'm looking forward to seeing the colour on the ground every time I look out the front of my house (until it rains).

I hope this 'chalking' trend continues amongst the Tempe kids, because it's a fun, timeless activity that brings them all together.

DIY Rainbow Crossing

Our backyard DIY Rainbow

Unless you've given up your phone and computer this past week, then you would have seen your Facebook feed and Twitter feed full of chalk rainbow images.

As a peaceful response to the Taylor Square rainbow crossing being removed, multitudes of people have hit the pavement drawing their own colourful rainbows with chalk.

Started over at the DIY Rainbow Crossings Facebook page. the trend has gone global as you can see by the images posted on their Facebook page and as reported by The Australian.


On Monday, I took the kids out into the backyard with a packet of chalk and we created a mini rainbow on the path.

Work in progress on Union Street
Photo: Helen Pentecost

Littlies chalking in Union Street
Photo: Helen Pentecost

As we started our little backyard rainbow crossing, I received a message from a neighbour across the road who had just bought a load of giant chalk to embark on a full size rainbow crossing on our street.  She invited us over to be part of it.

Union Street DIY Rainbow Crossing

The rainbow crossing on the street was a lot trickier as we had cars occasionally coming through, so we had the youngest kids colouring at the side of the road out of harms way and the adults / teenagers doing the middle.  Luckily we're on a small one way street so there wasn't too much traffic.

Union Street DIY Rainbow Crossing Complete!
Photo: Helen Pentecost

Station Street DIY Rainbow Crossing
Photo: Ellie McNamara

With such a warm and welcoming community in Tempe, there were a lot of us who wanted to get involved and spread the message of 'love is love'.  So about four or five streets in Tempe got on board and created there own DIY rainbow crossings. 

Toyer Street DIY Rainbow Crossing
Photo: Bettina Kaiser

Toyer Street DIY Rainbow Crossing
Photo: Bettina Kaiser

Brooklyn Street DIY Rainbow Crossing
Photo: Selina Martin

Another lovely example of the young families of the area working together for something they believe in and having fun with the kids at the same time.