Many months ago when we were reading Clam I Am!: All About the Beach, we came to a page where Thing 1 and Thing 2 were making pictures by dropping sand onto pieces of paper. Daniel loved that idea. It became his favorite page in the book, and he talked on and on about how he wanted to do it.
I had no idea how to make pictures with sand, but when I mentioned it to Aunt Treasa, she offered to organize the project during our beach vacation. What are aunts for, after all?
Since the sand was free and Easter egg dye was cheap after Easter, the craft probably cost about $10. And the children who tried it thoroughly enjoyed it.
They squeezed the glue.
They dipped their hands into bags full of sand.
They sprinkled the sand onto the paper.
They shook off the excess sand.
And they were really happy with the results—such as this pattern Daniel created.
Leo, who doesn’t like to draw at all, made this picture entirely on his own. I’m sure you can tell that they’re Angry Birds.
Their 10-year-old cousin made a picture in memory of her rat Mickey.
And she also made a rose.
As Daniel was putting glue onto the paper for his second picture, he said, “This is more fun than I thought it would be.” And it was.
Thank goodness for a crafty aunt who gave us yet another way to enjoy the sand at the beach.
Sand art instructions
1. At least a day before you want to make the pictures, get two pails of sand from the beach.
2. Prepare Easter egg dye following the instructions on the box. (She says, however, she will use less water when we do it again next year to try to make the colors more vibrant.)
3. Put about 3 cups of sand in a large freezer bag for each color.
4. Pour the cup of egg dye into the sand. Seal the bag and mush the sand and dye around until it is mixed.
5. Place sheets of aluminum foil or wax paper on a table or baking sheets and—wearing a rubber glove or a sandwich bag over your hand—spread the sand on the foil or wax paper. You can dry it inside, but it worked better to dry it outside in the sun—but not in direct sunlight or (forgive me since this is probably obvious) wind.
6. The next day, once the sand is dry, place it in clean freezer bags, jars, or bowls.
7. Place a disposable tablecloth on the table to collect the excess sand.
8. Use sketching or drawing paper—a heavier paper—to stand up to the weight of the wet glue and sand.
9. Have the children squeeze bottles of glue onto the paper. Then they can sprinkle the sand on top and shake off the excess.
10. Ooh and aah over the children’s exquisite sand art!
There are likely other ways to do this, so if you have tips to share, please send them along. We plan to do this again next summer.
We had plenty of sand left over, and we could even have filled bottles with the different colors of sand for another craft, if we had wanted to. We sent the extra sand home with the cousins, and we took home these beautiful pictures.
