How to make Sand Art with Salt!
I’m always on the lookout for fun colorful ways to decorate my home. And I love a good faux technique. So I was thrilled when I ran across the idea of creating sand art with salt! Here is a great way to make up so many different colors of “sand”, with a very low budget. This is a great project for the kids. Oh, and adults too!
Looks like colored sand, doesn’t it? You will be surprised at how easy this project is. And cheap too! I used dollar store containers, salt is very inexpensive, and the chalk I used to color it was just a few dollars. A great way to keep the kids busy on a summer day.
Warning- this project can be messy. If you are working with children, you might want to do this project outdoors.
For this project I used:
3 containers of salt
Colored Chalk
Grater
Ziplock bags
Glass Containers
votive candles
Begin by using the finer part of the grater to grate your chosen color of chalk. I used about half a piece of colored chalk for each color, but you can use more or less depending upon how deep a color you are going for. Grate the chalk over a large ziplock bag or piece of parchment paper.
Add about a cup of salt to your chalk gratings.
Pour into a ziplock bag. Seal, and mix the salt together with the chalk for an even color. Add more chalk or salt as desired to get the color you are looking for.
Repeat. As many times as you like for as many colors as you would like to work with! As you can see, I got a little carried away.
Now for the fun part! I found some great glass containers at the dollar store for this project. These were perfect for showing off the layers of color. Simply pour colors from your bags into the container in layers. Spread them out with your fingers or a pencil, then add another layer.
The colored layers look amazing!
My final touch was to add a votive candle to each one. These are perfect for colorful decorations in my house. Because they are salt, I wouldn’t recommend them for outdoors. They were certainly fun to make and would be a great project for the kids on a lazy summer day.
Oh, by the way. If you aren’t into candles, another great option would be faux succulents. They would look great in these containers. (You cannot use real ones because of the salt). But the best thing? You never have to water them!
That’s the thinking of a creative mind
Cool idea for making fun beach themed centerpieces!
IiII have made sand art, but I used a different method. I took salt and put it in a “pie plate”. I took chalk and rubbed it on the salt going into a ciccircle around the pan. I put a wick dunked in wax in the middle of my jar. It was a craft that I did for our church’s midweek program. The kids made their “sand” in layers like you did. I poured melted paraffin on top. Humidity causes the salt to deteriorate/melt, so the sand shrinks. I just wanted to share my method with you. It was quite awhile ago-in the late 1900’s.