How to Make DIY Colored Sand | Sand Art for Kids

Colored sand is a great arts and craft activity for kids! However, if you’re like me, you might feel a small sense of dread when thinking of bringing all that sand into the house. What if I told you there is an easier (and slightly less messy) way to make your own colored sand for your kids, using nothing but table salt and food coloring?

To make colored sand out of salt, add food coloring to table salt and mix well. Add 3-4 drops of food coloring for each 1/4 cup of salt. For example, if you use 1/2 cup of salt, add 6-8 drops of food coloring. For brighter colors, add more drops. For muted or pastel colors, add less drops.

Colored sand is a wonderful way to keep kids entertained and busy while also encouraging creativity.

DIY sand art is a simple and affordable way to decorate for a birthday party, holiday or just because.

And if you learn how to make DIY colored sand you can save lots of money!!

SUPPLIES FOR MAKING DIY COLORED SAND

The awesome thing is that to make colored sand you only need a few inexpensive items.

1. A container. You’ll need something like this or these plastic honey bears
2. Salt. Yup, salt. Lot’s of salt. I’d get something like this to use. More on this in a bit.
3. Food coloring. This kind of food coloring.

THE SECRET TO SAND

Here’s a little secret I discovered. You don’t have to use sand to make colored sand. In fact, I found a way to make colored salt!

Salt?

Yes, salt!  It works even better than sand and no one will tell the difference.  If you have looked up the price of colored sand, you know it can add up quickly.

This recipe using salt in place of sand is easy to make and costs only pennies a batch. All you need is standard table salt and common food color. That’s all!

Colored sand art is a great kindergarten activity, and would definitely count towards your homeschooling hours for your kindergartner. If you are still trying to figure out how many hours a day your need to spend homeschooling your kindergartner, I wrote a post with more info about that here: How Many Hours of Homeschool Should a Kindergartener Do?

PIN HOW TO MAKE DIY COLORED SAND FOR LATER

Once you learn to make this DIY colored sand, you can use it for all sorts of things! Use it in the bottom of a vase of flowers or to decorate holidays such as Easter and Valentines Day

HOW TO COLOR SAND

SUPPLIES FOR COLORED SAND

• Table salt
• Food Coloring (liquid, not gel)
• Jar, vase or another container. Empty plastic soda bottles are great for kids activities.

DIY DIRECTIONS

1. First, figure out how much salt you need. Fill each container to measure the amount of salt needed.
2. Then, divide the salt into different bowls-one bowl for each color you need.
3. Next, add 2 – 3 drops of food coloring for each 1/4 cup of salt. The more vibrant you want the colors to be the more drops you will need to add.  If you want light or muted tones, add fewer drops.
4. Use a whisk or fork to mix the sand and food coloring together, whisking rapidly until no clumps remain
5. Now comes the fun part! Layer the colored salt into your containers to make a beautiful design! (Something like this with colored sand and flowers would be beautiful for a shower or wedding. These empty plastic honey bears would be perfect for a kids craft project).

You’ll never even know that it is salt and not sand!

This is such an affordable option for kids crafts and festive decorating.  For just pennies, you can have all the colored sand you could ever need