Activity Overview
Make your own colored craft sand and store in your craft closet for future art projects with the kids. It only takes a few easy steps to create vibrant colored sand varieties that can be used for various sensory play activities and art projects. Colored craft sand is fun to concoct and much less expensive to make yourself than it is to buy it.
Create layered sand art in clear bottles or cups, create a sand candle, draw with glue onto a piece of paper and sprinkle the vibrant sand as you wish on the page and shake off the excess and more. Children of all ages will enjoy working with this colorful concoction that turns plain white sand into a fantastic art medium.
Materials Needed
- Food coloring
- Aluminum foil
- Water
- Clean white play sand
- Spoon
- Small glass bowls
- Strainer
- Baking sheet
- Oven
How to Do It
- Pour 1 cup of sand into each bowl.
- Add water to each bowl until the sand is just barely covered.
- Add several drops of food coloring into each bowl.
- Stir the contents of each bowl well and allow them to sit as is for 2 hours.
- Drain out the excess water from each bowl.
- Line a baking pan with aluminum foil.
- Scrape the pasty colored sand mixture onto the aluminum foil by color.
- Bake in a 200 degree oven until the sand is completely dry. The time varies depending on how much water is drained out prior to baking.
- Allow the sand to cool and store in sealed baggies or sealable containers by color
- Scrape off the pasty wet sand mixture
