Summer is slowly coming to an end and some of your kids may have returned to school already. This is however a way for them to preserve some of their summer memories in a little hanging token. Yes I should have told you about this craft when you visited sandy beaches this summer but you will be there again I promise.
What you will need is some beach sand (or maybe one from the playground), shells or other interesting finds from your day at the beach, some lids and my favorite Plaster of Paris.
Originally I was planning to make this craft on the beach with no containers but since our beach trips where day long there was not much time. So I was stuck using container lids, God knows I have a lot of them that do not match any bottom.
Mix Plaster of Paris with Water (2/1 plaster/water ratio)
With one container I actually mixed the plaster with sand. With the others I placed a layer of plaster in between a layers of sand and pressed it down, which was more sturdy and less messy.
Meaning I sprinkled the bottom of the lid with sand and placed a thick layer of plaster then again heavily sprinkled with sand pushing it into the plaster.
I pushed some found shells around the plaster and with a stick wrote summer ’11 on it. Too bad I can’t spell summer with space constraints.
Place a couple of holes on top to hang, or don’t if you will be laying it flat
Wait till they dry. Plaster of Paris becomes warm when it sets and it will be hard yet sandy when finished.
and brittle too, so if it falls down it will break. Next time I will make sure it is hanging on a nail not a push pin. You know just in case we have another earthquake.
The smaller ones survived the earthquake and are our reminder of days spend on Virginia Beaches. Now it is time to travel to more exotic places, sands and seashells (at least in my dreams).
Note: Keep in mind that the tokens will be a bit sandy until the loose sand comes off, we used a wax paper to keep it tidy at home.
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
What a cool idea! It’s a great way to keep those beach memories even after summer is long gone. I’ve linked up to your post on my weekly favorites here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2011/09/weekly-favorites-for-september-4-2011.html Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.
ooh, I love how you hung yours. we made ours as paperweights last month on a beach vacation: http://paintcutpaste.com/sandcasting-at-the-beach/