Inside: How to make Sand Dough Ornaments using sand from your favorite beach or your beach vacation.
Have you ever wondered what you can do with beach sand? We always want to take sand and shells home from our beach vacation but what can you do with them?
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission off sales made through these links at no extra cost to you. Click here for details.
I have been thinking about what to do with beach sand and shells 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.
Sand Ornaments DIY
These ornaments are made just like salt dough ornaments but made with beach sand instead of all the 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, Salt, Flour and Water for Sand Dough
- Shells
- Cookie Cutter or Glass
- Rolling Pin
- Straw (to make a hole)
- Mod Podge
- Rubber Letter Stamps (optional)
- Ribbon/Twine to Hang the Ornaments (fray check)
Making Sand Ornaments
The first step to making these ornaments is making the sand dough.
Sand Dough Recipe
- 2 Cups Sand
- 1 1/4 Cups Salt
- 1 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1/2 to 1 Cup Water (add slowly)
Mix together the sand, salt and flour and 1/2 cup water. Slowly add more water as needed to get the right play dough-like texture, you don’t want it to be sticky.
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.
We also used a butter knife to cut out sand castle like shapes.
Use a straw to make holes in the sand dough so it’s easy to hang your ornaments. If you forgot to do this like we did the first time you can very carefully drilled little holes in the ornaments.
Decorate with Shells
After cutting out the sand dough 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 stick.
You can also use rubber stamps to add the location, date or anything else you want to your ornaments.
Handprints pressed into the sand dough are also really fun.
Bake or Air Dry
Once the ornaments are all ready let them air dry until they are completely dry or bake them for about 3-4 hours at 120. I have done both air dry and baking and they both work great. Depending on the thickness of your ornaments the dry time can vary.
Paint and Mod Podge
After the ornaments are dry and cool (if you baked them) you can paint them with mod podge or a clay glaze to seal them and give them a shiny look. Or you can keep them with the original look, it’s totally up to you.
Add the Ribbon
The last step to making these ornaments is really easy. Simply pick a ribbon or twine and make a big loop through the hole in the ornament. Make sure to use fray check or super glue on the ends of the ribbon so it doesn’t fray.
Have you ever made anything with sand from your favorite beach vacation?
Save this post!
