Beach Craft

I wasn't sure if the kids would be bored spending a week at the beach, so I planned a couple beach crafts just in case. Turns out they weren't bored, so we didn't do any of them except this one, which I found on Family Fun's website. We did this one more because we thought it would be fun. In hindsight, it would have been more fun if it hadn't been so hot. It was almost unbearable to sit out of the shade & water long enough to make the mold and put the shells in.
Here's how we did it:

Create a mold in the moist, compact sand just out of the surf's reach. The kids had a little trouble digging the mold, but I think a lot of the problem was that it was too hot to sit still that long. Tyler made a fish. Danielle made a heart.

Press shells and other beach treasures into the mold, face down. (The surface you want to see should be facing the sand, not you.)

Fill the mold with plaster of paris. We brought plaster of paris down with us, poured it into a beach pail, and mixed it by hand with ocean water.






Let the mold sit for 30 minutes or so before gently digging it out of the sand. Several hours after it dried I brushed the extra sand off and tried to clean it up a little.

I put wires in the plaster before it dried, thinking I could use those to hang the pieces, but the pieces are just too heavy. Now I'm thinking about using something like you use to display plates. Tiny bits of sand still fall off occasionally, so we are going to try spraying these with spray adhesive before displaying them.

Our homemade beach souvenirs!