Sand Dough Ornaments Made using sand from your favorite beach or your beach vacation.
Have you ever wondered what you can do with beach sand? I always want to take sand and shells home from our beach vacation.
After living in Florida for a while this year when we moved back to Maryland I had to get a bag of sand from our favorite beach. I needed a little piece from our favorite place to spend time in Florida.
I have been thinking about what to do with that sand for a while now. First I used some sand to fill a clear glass ornament and then I decided it would be fun to make some Sand Dough Ornaments.
Just like salt dough but made with beach sand instead of salt. These ornaments have a fun beach texture and are perfect to make with the kid’s help.
Supplies for the Sand Dough Ornaments
- Sand, Flour and Water for Sand Dough
- Shells
- Cookie Cutter or Glass
- Rolling Pin
- Straw (to make a hole)
- Mod Podge
- Ribbon/Twine to Hang the Ornaments
Making Sand Ornaments
The first step to making these ornaments is making the sand dough.
Sand Dough Recipe
- 1 Cup Sand
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1/2 Cup Water (might need more)
Mix together the sand flour and 1/2 cup water. Slowly add more water as needed to get the right play dough-like texture.
Roll and Cut
Roll out the dough and cut out shapes. You can cut out any shapes you want. The kids and I ended up cutting out a few shapes but mostly circles. We wanted some larger circles so we used a drinking glass to cut them out.
Use a straw to make holes in the sand dough so it’s easy to hang your ornaments. I totally forgot to do this so we very carefully drilled little holes in the ornaments.
Decorate with Shells
After cutting out our shapes we put them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then put some of the shells from the same beach into the soft dough. Make sure to press the shells in securely so they bake into the dough and get stuck.
Bake or Air Dry
Once the ornaments are all ready let them air dry until they are completely dry or bake them for about 3 hours at 170. I baked our ornaments since I didn’t want to wait.
Let the ornaments cool completely for at least an hour after baking them.
Paint and Mod Podge
After the ornaments are dry and cool you can paint them if you want or leave them all-natural.
As a last step paint the ornaments with mod podge to preserve them and give them a smooth finish.
Add the Ribbon
The last step to making these ornaments is really easy. Simply pick a ribbon or twine and tye a big loop through the hole in the ornament. This makes it so you can hang the ornament on the tree.
Have you ever made anything with sand from your favorite beach vacation?
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