Sand Art Paintings -

Are you looking for a fun art project that your students will definitely be excited about? Create a COLORED SAND PAINTING! Kids love the tactile experience of touching the sand and the bright colors are so appealing. Using sand is a novel experience and kids have fond associations with playing in sand boxes or on beaches.

Today I am going to show you an easy way to create beautiful sand paintings using paints, Elmer’s glue and colored sand. My students are loving this project!!

This blog post was sponsored as part of Elmer’s Crafty Blogging Crew, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

Supplies:

Canvas board or matboard (I got a large pile of matboards free from a framing supply shop.)
Elmer’s Glue
Colored Sand
Acrylic paints or craft paints and brushes
Pencil
Sheet of paper larger than the board
Little plastic cups for easy distribution of sand (if working with a group of kids)
Funnel (optional)
Spoons (optional)

Steps:

1. Using your pencil, draw a design on the canvas board or mat board. Try to keep your ideas simple, with good sized spaces in between shapes. Organic shapes (loose, freeform) tend to work better for the sand painting technique. I used Yellena James‘ bold, organic style for inspiration.

2. Use acrylic or craft paints to fill in the areas.

3. Paint carefully and fill in the sections. Some areas may need a second coat.

4. Add as much paint as you want to the canvas. Feel free to leave some areas white.

5. Draw lines with Elmer’s glue on the canvas board or fill in whole areas with the glue.

6. Sprinkle sand on top of the glue.

7. Shake sand on to a piece of paper.

8. Pour sand carefully back into the container.

To organize this project for a class of kids, I poured sand into little plastic cups with lids. Don’t forget to remind the kids that they need to actually make sure the lid is closed before putting the sand away.

9. Continue adding glue and sprinkling sand on top, repeating steps 5-8 until you are satisfied with the design. Enjoy experimenting with different shapes, lines and colors.

My students are working on these now and soon I will have some student examples to show you.

There are many cultural and artist connections to be made with this project. Some of these include: contemporary artists Joe Mangrum, Naoshi and Pip & Pop, Tibetan Sand Mandalas, Indian Rangoli and Native American Sand Paintings. Here is a Sesame Street video clip of Joe Mangrum!

A sand art painting resembling a flower with intricate patterns on a public pavement, surrounded by onlookers.

Joe Mangrum

Person creating intricate sand art mandala on floor with various pastel-colored materials scattered around.

Pip & Pop

Sand Art Paintings featuring blue, green, and white patterns with a central flame design against a brown ground.

Rangoli

Here is a cool Rangoli video clip.

I created a slideshow of these sand art examples along with the steps to this project. For a limited time, this presentation will be available for only $1 from my shop! The original price is $4. I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and let me know if you make sand paintings with your kids.