Beach Day - DIY's and Survival Kit

Hopefully you are ready for a beach day because that is the focus of this week’s blog post. The colour we chose is again in the Tarte eyeshadow palette and it is called “Beach Therapy” and it is a matte peachy/sandy shade.

Our focus is getting you beach ready so we have some great crafts that you can take with you on your beach day as well as a must pack list of items to make you comfortable for your beach day.

Crafty DIY’s

Something that is so easy and great to take with you to the beach, are DIY decorated flip flops. All you need is a pair of plain flip flops (you choose the colour you like) and then you can find some little adornments that you can hot glue gun to them. You can do a sparkly jewel theme, a shell theme, or any other idea that you may come up with. You can just attach one big flower to each and spruce up the plain pair of flip flops just like that!

Take a look at this for inspiration...

http://www.marciseither.com/diy-fabulous-flip-flops/

Another cool idea we saw was this beach hat. The one in the link below is inspired by a watermelon but you can do any pattern or design that you like. You just need to find a big straw sun hat and some craft/fabric paint and then you can create whatever you like and it’ll keep you protected at the beach and be a fashion statement! You can also add some ribbon (by hot gluing) or other decorative elements (by hot gluing or sewing) if you like.

https://studiodiy.com/2016/06/09/diy-watermelon-floppy-hat/

Something really cool that we found is a decorated cooler. Even your cooler should be stylish at the beach. For this one you’ll need a cooler, preferably a white one, and then you can paint it to a colour that you like and decorate it with vinyl pieces that you can cut out and make whatever shapes you want.

https://thecraftedlife.com/diy-cooler-makeover/#more-12407

Here are a few more things that you can make for the beach (an umbrella, a cover up, and a towel) which take a bit more effort to make. These do require some more skill, haha, so if you are adventurous, then give these a go.

https://sugarandcloth.com/diy-retro-beach-umbrella/

https://www.merricksart.com/diy-friday-pom-pom-trim-beach-coverup/

https://www.simplesimonandco.com/2015/05/simple-diy-beach-towel-tutorial.html/

Beach Day Survival Kit

Ok, so now it’s time to look at the must have in your beach bag for a perfect beach day!

Sunscreen

First Aid Kit (make sure you have band aids, alcohol swabs, after bite, antibiotic ointment/cream, allergy medicine, and a pain reliever)

Change of clothes and a towel

Cooler

Aloe Gel

Sunglasses

Hat

Beach Blanket

Beach Umbrella

Beach Chairs

Portable speaker

Hair Elastic/Brush

Card Games

A good book

Chapstick with SPF

Comfortable beach shoes (flip flops or sandals)

Sand Coasters

Sand Toys/Sand Castle Making Supplies

Sports Stuff (Frisbee, volleyball, baseball mitts, beach ball)

Rubber Dingy/Inflatable Toy or Boat

Towel Clips

Cool Drinks (juice boxes, pop, Gatorade, premade drinks in a bottle, water)

Snacks (fruits, veggies, cookies, chips, crackers, freezies if you have a good cooler)

Lunch/Dinner (sandwiches-egg salad is always a good cool one but any cold sandwich works such as cucumber, ham and cheese or roast beef, pasta salads are another great option, as are wraps, coleslaw, potato salad, bunwiches, cold fried chicken, green salad, and hot dogs)

Portable BBQ (if allowed)

Snowman Decoration

We’re taking inspiration from our “Snowmen Tobogganing” card this week and we are making a homemade snowman decoration to adorn your house this season.

You just need some basic supplies, some of which you may already have in your house and if you don’t, they can be very inexpensive to pick up. We went to the dollar store and found a few things that we needed.

You’ll need two-three Styrofoam balls (one bigger than the other if you’re using two or three different sized ones if you’re using more), white glue and something to apply it with, thick decorative ribbon for a scarf, a bread knife, assorted buttons, toothpicks, shredded snow, a glue gun, felt for a hat, and some popsicle sticks.   

Prep your work space because this could be a messy craft. We laid out some newspaper over our table and then we also got out a paper plate and placed all of our snow on that.

Our snowman is going to be a two baller so first of all, cut what’s to be the bottom of the smaller (head) ball and then the top of the (body) so that they can lay flat when connected together.

Now apply the white glue to both balls and roll in the shredded snow. Let it dry and allow the glue to harden.

Next use the glue gun to glue the top and bottom together.

Glue gun on buttons down the center and buttons for the eyes and mouth.

For the nose we have taken some orange cardstock and cut it into a triangle and glued it on.

Glue a cut in half popsicle stick on both sides as the arms.

Now it’s time for the hat. We’re using some felt pieces that we had left over from a Christmas blog craft that we have done in the past. Take a piece of felt, we chose green. Make it into a cylinder and glue the edges together; make sure it fits your snowman’s head. Gather about half of it as the top “pom” and secure it with an elastic band. Cut slits in the top half to make it look like tassels. Now cover the elastic band with string, pipe cleaner, or ribbon. Now you have a little hat. You can just rest it on top or if you'd like, put a little dab of glue on it to keep it in place.

Lastly, use a wider patterned/decorative piece of ribbon and tie/glue it around the neck of your snowman as a scarf.  

Here’s our finished snowman...