I wanted to share with y'all a little project a did a few months back. The inspiration came from my old kindergarten teacher, actually. She would give us kids coloring books, but instead of markers she would give us colored sand. You could paint a section with glue, throw sand on it, and the idea is that the sand only sticks to the glue. Since then I've played around with the idea, tried different mediums, different techniques, and such.

I finally decided I wanted to put a quote on my wall.

What I should tell you upfront is that this is - as far as i can tell - PERMANENT. You might be able to sand it down or chip away the grainiest pieces... but I wouldn't count on it. Think of it as a tattoo. Put in a lot of thought and make sure you're happy living with the design.

You only need regular ol' elmers glue and some sand. I've collected little jars of sand from different beaches I've been to around the world, so now there's a little bit of Hawaii on my wall forever. :)

The premise is simple, squeeze the glue onto your wall in a pattern and throw the sand on it. You can glue as you go along or map out the whole design, but you're going to need to work quickly if you go that route. Fix all mistakes before the glue dries. The lines aren't perfectly perfect, so I went back with tweezers and a Q-tip to make it look more polished.

You're going to get a lot of sand on the floor! You're going to get a lot of glue on your fingers! Things are going to get messy, but it's worth it!

There are a few variations on this I can think of. If you want colored sand, just fill up a ziploc bag, add food coloring, knead, and let it dry in the sun. It might also be pretty if you use things that are similar to sand: small beads, broken glass, glitter. You could get really creative with it!



The final result is really beautiful. Sand is so small that it's possible to get really, really intricate, I'm so pleased  that I'm considering doing an elaborate mandala on the wall in my bathroom. The variations in the color of the sand add dimension to the design, and the tan could contrast really nicely on any color of wall. I like that the design is 3 dimensional. It comes off the wall and adds texture and uniqueness to blank walls. This idea is perfect to add a cute, beachy vibe to your space!