Beach Sand Capsules

Living in Southern California, we go to a lot of beaches. I thought that it would be a cute idea to come up with a way to show which beaches that our family has played at. It took awhile to find the right kind of glass containers that I wanted to use to hold the sand. I didn’t want them to be too big but at the same time I wanted the to be big enough to hold shells that we find at the beach as well. That way the containers will be different and have their own personality to them.

When I was out with some friends we checked out The World Market. It was my first time in there… let me just tell you it’s a dangerous place! So many nice things in that store! Any who… while I was in there I just happen to come across these cute little glass spice containers. As you can see they fit everything perfectly! You can find them here: Stainless Steel Lidded Spice Jars

I just happen to have some sand from a new beach that we visited recently so, I will show you all how I put it all together!

The first thing I did was get some clear labels, from any store that has an office section, and wrote the name of the beach on it. I wanted to do this first so that I didn’t have to worry about left over sand getting stuck to the sticky side of the label.

Next you will want to take the lid off the container (mind had a plastic shaker top that I also had to remove, yours might not have them depending on what you decide to use).

Now you are ready to pour in your beach sand that you collected. I would suggest letting the sand dry because it’s easier to work with that way. You could try to add it in when it’s wet but I can’t guarantee that the sand will stay wet.

When you have the amount of sand that you want in your container (I’ll be getting more sand to add to mine when I go to that beach again… I’m not really happy with the amount of sand in it right now) you can add any shells, sea glass or anything else that you found on the beach and want to save).

The only thing that is left is to put the lid on and slap the label on!

Now I just have to collect some sand from the other beaches that we have gone to so we have the full set!

Fun with the Kids – Re-Purposing Tin Cans

We do a good job with recycling all of our cans, plastic, paper and glass but I just thought that there had to be another way to get some good use out of some of those things.
So I decided to do what anyone would do and spend some time on Pintrest looking for cool ways to re-purpose our tin cans. I have to say that I found some pretty good ideas but I decided to just pick 2 of my favorite ones to share with you because I think these will be a big hit with the kids.

1.Tin Can Stilts

I think is my favorite! It reminds me of the stilts that I used in gym class although those were real wooden stilts instead of these but these are still such a good idea! It’s a pretty easy one to do to… all you really need to do is get two big cans and some rope. Preferably you will want to make sure that the cans are the same size so that the kiddos can learn how to balance on them and walk with them easily.

Click the image above to take you to Happy Hooligans blog for the How To on this fun idea!

2. Strawberry Planter

I picked this one because I know how much kids like to watch stuff grow and develop, plus who doesn’t like strawberries! This project needs a little more time/work put into it but it’s a project that the kids can really get into! Not only can they watch the plant grow but they can also get their hands dirty by painting/decorating the outside or the can and by digging in the dirt to plant the strawberry!

I don’t know about you, but living in Orange County we have a lot of ant issues. So, planting these in the ground would be pretty pointless since they would probably get eaten by the ants before we even get to pick them. This makes this project even better since they will be hanging up which will give these little strawberry plants a greater chance of hitting the bottom of our bellies.

Click the image above to take you to We-Made-That.com for the How To on this yummy idea!

 

Do you have any other ideas for what you can do with your empty tin cans? Then please let me know in the comments below!