Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tuesday's Art Adventure: Sand Casting

I have a love/hate relationship with Plaster of Paris. But the excitement kids have when they cast something is too priceless to pass up.

Sand Casting

Supplies:
  • plaster of paris
  • water
  • sand
  • some sort of box or container (I used leftover plastic plant pots from the nursery)
  • 3-D objects (we used and army man and legos)
  • tempera paint and brushes
First pick your container and fill about half way with wet sand. Make your sand sandcastle consistency - not too wet, but holds form.

Now you have an idea how big your object can be. Pick out something that you like that will not be hurt by sand. You can even just use your hand or foot if you want too.
Press your object into the sand and press the sand together if it cracks. 

Carefully pry your object out of the sand.
Mix your plaster of paris, 2 parts plaster to 1 part water. Stir until it is a smooth consistency.

For the army man, we just carefully poured the plaster to cover. We made it more like a plaque. For the legos, we thought it would be funny to have separate little blocks, so we used a spoon to carefully fill each indention.

Cue the Jeopardy waiting music. Let it set up. Now would have been a good time to use a bent paper clip as a hook and set that in the army man plaque, but we were so focused on the funny legos, that we didn't remember to do it. But you could.

Once dry and hard, pry out of the sand.

Brush the sand off and give it a rinse. 

Some sand will stay adhered to the plaster, but you want the excess off. Let dry.
Break out the paint. We used tempera because it is easy to clean up and works fine for this.


Once dry, your child has their own little casting.

How funny are those legos?

Couple of extra tips:
If your child has a sandbox, just borrow some sand, you will be able to put it back when you are done.

It's best to do the plaster of paris part on the grass, so if you spill it's no big deal. Just hit the spill with the hose and it will fine.

Rinse out whatever you mix the plaster in and with right away, but again, just do it outside rather than worrying about sending it down the drain.

So, now that you bought all that plaster, I'll have another project next week that uses plaster of paris too. Don't miss it!


This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills , C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Singing Three BirdsMasterpiece Mondays, Making the World Cuter, Sarahndipities, A Little Birdie Told Me (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, Ten Buck Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays, Anything Related, Tuesday's Treasures, Strictly Homemade, Show Me What Ya Got, Time to Shine, Show Off Your Crafty Side (W) Wow Me Workshop Wednesday, Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Look What I Made, What I Whipped Up, The Trendy Treehouse, Wicked Awesome Wednesday , Good Life Wednesday, Inspiring Creativity, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) Beyond the Picket Fence  Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's, Thrilling Thursday, (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree , Lovely Crafty Weekend , Simply Designing, Creative Corner, Tickled Pink 504 Main, Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence, Friday Flair, Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, Frugal Friday, Craft Goodies, I'm Lovin' It, Flaunt It Fridays (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop

18 comments:

  1. What fun! Visiting from Rook No. 17's linky party.

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  2. Great idea! I agree with you. The delight kids have beats any annoyance with the material. Happy casting!
    Andee
    P.S. visiting from rook no. 17

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  3. My boys would love to make the LEGOS. Great idea!

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  4. aww looks like they had so much fun!!! way cool:)
    http://jaysonandashley.blogspot.com

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  5. Cute! What a fun mom to take time to do this.
    thanks for the tutorial!
    xoxo
    amy

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  6. How fun is this! What a great project and activity! I can't wait to do this! I found your blog through a link party and LOVE it! I am your newest follower and would love it if you would check out my blog and follow me too! Thanks!
    -Nikki
    http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/

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  7. This is neat we will have to try this. Just pinned you soi i'll remember.

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  8. This is so cool!!
    Would you like to share this post at our Weekly Playdate link party? It would be a fantastic addition!
    You'll find the party here: http://beneaththerowantree.blogspot.com/2011/06/playdate-link-party-blog-hop-14-all.html

    Cheers,
    Lori
    Come & Play :: Playdate
    www.beneaththerowantree.com

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  9. Thanks for this fun post. I, to, have a stormy relationship with plaster. But I just can't give it up! Definitely will be trying your project.

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  10. Great idea - have tried this with animal footprints but never thought about using objects to cast.

    Check out my dino-fossil project using plaster of paris - atht should use some up - especially if you make a big one in the sand-pit.

    http://papervinenz.blogspot.com/2011/06/gots-kids-make-your-own-dinosaur.html

    Lowri :-)

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  11. We love this idea! We work whit toddlers on Italy.

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  12. How cool! We did this with handprints at the beach one year...just for fun with toys is a great idea!!! Thanks so much for sharing at the Tuesday To Do Party!
    Smiles!
    Jami

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  13. Such a cute idea and a fun summer activity! Thank you for sharing it with us at Inspiration Friday!

    Heather

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  14. What a fun, creative and wonderful project to do with your children. I know my girls would flip for this! I'm featuring a link on my FB page.

    Thank you so much for linking up to last week's "A Little Birdie Told Me...". My apologies for the belated vist -- with July 4 falling on a Monday, it threw my whole schedule off, and I'm just now making the rounds to visit the party-goers from that week. Best, Jenn

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  15. Plaster of paris is a bit messy, but a fun activity for the kids. They just love making things with it.

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  16. I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. Therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.

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