Sand Castle - Sand Crafts for All Ages

Happy first day of August! This week our shade is called “Sand Castle” and it’s a bronzy metallic one.

We of course are going to go with this sand castle theme and we are going to share with you how to create some sand castles in the comfort of your own home.

Take a look at some of the cool ideas that we found and revamped a bit...

1. The first idea we saw was really simple and so easy to create. All you need is a simple picture of a sand castle (you can find a colouring sheet online or you can draw a simple sand castle). Grab some dry sand and then put glue along the outline of the sand castle. Cover the glue with sand. Gently remove the excess sand.  If there are some other little objects on the sheet you can colour them or attach 3D pieces to it.

2. Another idea we saw was making a sand castle scene with sand paper. For this you would get a good sized piece of cardstock. Light blue might be good for the sky. Then you would cut out a sand castle from some light coloured sand paper. You can freehand the sand castle or find a design to trace online. The sand castle would be in a few pieces once cut out.

Now find some slightly darker sand paper and cut out a design that looks like sand on the beach for the bottom level of the paper.

Attach your sand castle decorated as you like. It’s ok if it’s sticking off your paper.

Now add whatever else you’d like (you can create these with punches, foam bits, or whatever else might be able to find and create with). Add whatever details you’d like as well. This one had a bucket, sea shells, shovel, sun but you can choose what you want. Also, you can decorate the background too by drawing on some clouds, birds, and some waves for the ocean.

3. This next one is simple for the young ones to make. Grab some tan paper. Cut out a bunch of shapes (rectangles, squares, and triangles are best to make more of) you can get the younger kids to safely try cutting out some shapes too.

Prepare on your own or with the help of your youngster a larger piece of tan cardstock (big enough for your shapes to fit on) and cover the top half with blue tissue paper. Lay out the sand castle and then glue it all down and display.

4. If you’re looking for a little bit more adventurous you can give this one a try. It’s more for an adult to create. It would be a perfect display to have at a party or even a wedding!

You’ll want to find some boxes. Think different shapes and sizes to make it look like a tiered wedding cake. Connect them all with masking tape.

Then connect tin cans (you might want two pairs of matching ones and a smaller one for the top) to the corner of the tiers with tape and on top of them attach a upside down single cup of an egg carton.

Now grab some Mod Podge and sponge it all over the “sand castle” and cover with sand. After putting on one layer tip off the excess and let it dry and then add on another layer to cover any gaps. Let it dry completely.

To decorate the sand castle, you can go and collect shells from the beach or create your own beach dollars or shells. You can also add rocks, glass, and other classic beach adornments to it as well.

5. The last sandy craft we found was a messy one but fun for kids. Get some white construction paper and on two separate sheets draw two separate sand castles. They don’t have to be the same. Then cut them out.

Take these outside and cover them with white glue. Then cover with sand. Place it in the sun so it can dry up.

Connect the ends together with a stapler so that you have a sand castle “pen” that you can play in or just look at, up to you!

Links:

http://makingmamamagic.blogspot.com/2014/07/sandcastle-sand-art.html

https://www.shoregirlscreations.com/2009/07/sandcastle.html

https://iheartcraftythings.com/sand-paper-sand-castle-craft.html

http://www.michellepaigeblogs.com/2012/08/make-sand-castle-centerpiece.html

https://buggyandbuddy.com/sandcastle-craft/

Quick and Easy Valentine's Day Crafts

As Valentine’s Day approaches, we have found some sweet and simple crafts to make for someone special in your life. They are not very hard crafts to make. You might already have many of the supplies handy at home.

First up...yarn heart. This one is super simple. Find some yarn in the colour that you want your heart to be. Next find some sturdy cardboard. I had a box that I was recycling so we cut that up. Trace whatever size heart you want to make onto the cardboard and cut it out. 

Tie the yarn around the heart to secure it and tape the end of the yarn onto the heart. Begin to wrap. Wrap in all directions and to whatever thickness you like; tie a knot at the end when you're done. 

Eventually you have something like this... You can attach something to hang it up with or you can lay it down somewhere as a decoration.

https://www.easypeasyandfun.com/yarn-wrapped-hearts-craft/

This next one is more for the kids. It super cute! We’re going to use hearts to make a Valentine bee.

You will need red or pink, black, and yellow cardstock. Cut two large hearts from each of these colours (ours are 3 ¼ inches wide and about 2 inches deep from the middle indent of the heart to the bottom point).

You will also need two red smaller hearts (we punched them with our 1 inch heart punch) and two mini hearts which we punched out as well. The mini hearts are for the “mouth” so you want them to be a bit smaller.

Use a black heart for the bottom and then layer yellow on top, then black, and then yellow again. Make sure there is an even amount of each colour showing in the layers except for the last yellow heart which you will see all of because that is the face.

Glue on the red heart wings next so that they stick out from each side.

Now for the antennas, you can use pipe cleaners if you have them or we just cut out some slightly curvy antennas out of black cardstock. Attach your medium hearts to the ends of these.

Lastly you have to complete your face. Get as fancy as you would like. You can use stickers, googly eyes, or you can draw on two little eyes like we did. We drew a little smiley face and then put those mini hearts at either ends. Cute!

https://fromabcstoacts.com/bee-mine-valentine/

If you want a no fuss super easy craft, then this one’s for you. You will need some coloured paper or patterned paper which is what we used. Cardstock is too thick for this.

Cut a large fat heart out of your paper. Ours measured 7 inches wide and 5 ¼ inches from the middle indent to the bottom point.

If you are using patterned paper, then put it pattern side down and then fold the sides towards the centre so that they overlap slightly.

Fold the top towards the middle so that it looks like an envelope.

Now fold your envelope flap down (it should be a triangle) and close it with a heart sticker. 

Before sealing it you can write a love/special message in the centre of the heart so when someone opens it up, they see your message.

https://www.marthastewart.com/269660/folding-envelope-hearts

I’ve kept the most complex out of these simple Valentine’s crafts for last.

Out of some sturdy cardstock, make a template of a 2 inch wide heart to trace along with a 3 inch one. We cut our smaller hearts out of a pattern piece of paper and another one out of our homemade pink paper. The two bigger hearts were cut out of a white cardstock that had a simple 3D line design on it.

Now glue the little heart onto the middle of the big heart.

With an exacto knife cut around the bottom half of your inside smaller heart, almost like you are tracing it with your knife. You should have a little slit to slip the pages of a book through.

https://www.marthastewart.com/273705/heart-bookmark

Here are all the finished products. Super easy to make and super cute!

Monkey Puppet

So this week’s flavour is a very modern and untraditional ice cream flavour, the flavour is “Monkey Madness” by Brusters. The main ice cream flavour is banana which makes sense because monkeys and bananas are often associated. Stirred into that banana ice cream base are marshmallows and a candy called Buckeyes (which are a peanut butter fudge ball partially dipped in chocolate). If you’re a peanut butter and banana fan than this flavour is for you!

We’re not going to make anything with those ingredients, instead, we are going to make a monkey inspired craft. We thought a fun little kid craft to make would be monkey puppets. They’re really simple and would be a perfect activity to do when your child has over some of their new friends from school (since school started up this week).

So gather up the following...regular brown paper bags, some cardstock for the monkey parts (light pink, dark brown, lighter brown/beige, cream, and black), glue, scissors, a pencil, and “monkey parts.”

First of all you want to figure out how you are going to make the parts of the monkey. We have found a template here and printed that off and then cut it out and traced it on our cardstock. You can freehand drawing a monkey or use a cutting device like a Silhouette if you have.

Trace the inside of the ears in pink, the head and ears dark brown, the body, nose, and mouth in the light brown, around the eyes in cream, and the pupils in black.

Once you have all of the parts, you can start gluing them on/together.

Glue the eyes onto the cream eye piece. Then glue the inside of the ears onto the ears and the big eye piece onto the face and then to complete the face, glue the ears onto the head.

Next you can glue the head onto the flap of the bag and then the body just underneath the head. Now glue the nose on the flap so it partially covers the eye piece (draw on the nostrils before gluing) and the mouth part just under it. Finally glue the tail on the back of the paper bag near the bottom.

We took a look at our finished product and noticed that something was missing...a tongue! When you open up your little monkey puppet’s mouth it just seemed too empty so we cut a tongue out of red cardstock and then added a line down the middle to make it look like a tongue.

Now it’s done!

Painted Terra Cotta Pots and Garden Markers

It must be true what they say about April showers because today is a rainy April day. The sun’s been out for the most part of the week, but today has been a rainy Friday. In preparation for the sunny Spring days ahead, we are doing a craft that you can use to display your herbs and flowers. We are going to paint terra cotta pots and make garden/plant markers.

It’s actually a super relaxing and fun craft to do. I’ve painted them at birthday parties and have painted a bunch and used them as party favours (kinda like a basket filled with treats and wrapped in cellophane).

First off you’ll want to go to your local garden center and pick out some terra cotta pots. We chose a few smaller sizes, but you can get really big ones too if that’s what you want. Or you can get a nice variety of sizes.

Then pick some paint (from our many crafting adventures, we had lots of paints and brushes/sponges leftover to use).

Make sure you cover your workspace with some newspaper or an old table cloth as it can be a bit messy at times to paint these. You’ll also want to make sure you have some paper towels on hand, painters tape, and paper plates.

You can just go for it or carefully plan out your design. I will admit I started doing one and then completely changed it after not liking the way it looked. I free handed mine, whereas Nicole taped out her design on the larger pot she painted. I’ve also painted ones with scenes on them

For my little pot, I had a grey theme. I mixed some blues together for the main part and then painted on grey and blue hearts. I did it freestyle so they’re not perfect. I wanted to do a bright and colourful theme for my larger pot so I used pink, orange, purple, and blue and just did a couple of sizes of polka dots on it using circular sponges.

Nicole did a very geometrical purple and white design on her larger pot. After painting the pot completely white, she used painters tape and laid out her design and sponged on the purple. For her little pot, she went with an earthy theme and used paper towel to make it have a spongy effect.

It’s important to let your pots dry for a few days before touching them or taking off any tape. Once they look the way you want them to, you can spray them with a protective coating so they can withstand the elements outside.

Another fun thing we thought we’d do is make little garden markers to go in the pots. They are simple to make and handy to have to mark the flowers and herbs that you plant.

For these you will need larger wooden sticks, paint, felts, and 3D sticky letters.

First of all, paint the sticks. You can make them match the pots or do whatever design you want. After they are dry, you use a marker to write on them or you can use 3D sticky letters. We found some bright foamy ones that we decided to try out. Then you can spell out your herbs and flowers. 

Here are our finished products.