sandy castles

long gone are the days when i hauled four kids and a carload of toys to the beach...

the chaos was worth it to spend long summer days

on the shores of Lake Tahoe or Puget Sound,

walking the waterline searching for beautiful seashells

and building sand castles (IF there was sand and not broken seashell grapple!).

those memories live on, especially in summertime,

and i've come up with an easy way to add a fun beachy touch to summer decor.

you can create these 'sandy castles' , too -

and it might just be as relaxing as making the real thing!

continue reading to see my sneaky trick...

Qhere's a look at the finished project, arranged on my faux mantel:

those look like regular sand castles, don't they?

they have a secret:

they started out as plastic sand castle molds from the 99Cent store!

it doesn't take much to change brand new or old thrifted sand castle forms

into the sand-covered versions that i created...

TOP ROW:

i painted my plastic castle  molds using artist acrylic paint, tinted a 'sand' hue.

it took two coats to cover the bright colors...  and it was time consuming,

so i'm going to suggest that you spray paint yours!

MIDDLE ROW:

after the paint dries, mix some white glue with a touch of brown paint and a splash of water.

paint this mixture onto your castle pieces - 

and then IMMEDIATELY either lay them into sand, or sprinkle sand onto the glued surface.

glue and apply sand to one side of the mold at a time, 

so that you can hold it horizontal and the sand stays on better.

BOTTOM ROW:

i have a large baggie filled with my favorite grainy sand from my favorite beach on my island,

and i intended to use it on two of the pieces - 

and use the fine grain sand from our backyard tiki bar on the other two.

you see one castle mold serve as my 'test' piece,

where i applied both kinds of sand to opposite ends.

sadly, the larger grains of sand/shells didn't cover the plastic well at all.

so i knocked off as much rough sand as i could from the first piece, 

then applied more glue and poured some of the fine sand onto the form.

fortunately, it blends in just fine:

the largest castle shown above is actually the bucket that everything came in,

with handle removed and a nice thick coat of sand glued on.

i also painted and glued sand about an inch inside the rim of the bucket,

so i could flip it over and use it as a flower vase

(shown in photos lower in this post)

after everything dried, i arranged the 'sandy castles' on my studio mantel

in three different arrangements...

you saw one up above, here's another, and then the final 'look' is below it:

part of my collection of bottled sand from all of the beaches i have visited is included here,

along with several large shells from beaches in Puget Sound

and some shells i painted with yellow and white patterns back in summer 2020.

when the bucket 'castle/ is flipped over,

it will hold a potted plant or flower arrangement perfectly -

these yellow hibiscus flowers really make the yellow shells stand out!

at the end of summer when i remove them from the mantel,

i will spray these castles with a coat of  matte clear spray paint

and then place each one in a plastic bag for storage.

that should help keep the sand ON the molds.

(yes, i could have done it now, but i am a procrastinator

and am already busy working on other projects! LOL)

displayed with seashells, seascape paintings, or photos of family vacations at the beach,

these are perfect summer decor accents to set a mood in your home

that cost very little to make.

i love the way they fit perfectly with my all-time FAVE photo of my four kids,

snapped on Mukilteo Beach back in 1995... happy summer memories.

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related content:

painted seashell wall art

beach in a jar

beach in a box

five ways to display seashells

(number five is a DOOZY!) 

shared online:

creatively beth | team creative crafts linky party #149

modern on monticello | home matters linky party #433 

thank you for featuring my project, Miss Donna!

funky junk interiors | new upcyled ideas #681

thank you for featuring my project, Miss Donna!

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