Wednesday 31 July 2013

Seaside in a jar - summer holiday keepsake


Ruby recently made a 'beach in a jar' at school, and it was such a sweet idea, we decided to recreate it again at home.  It's a lovely way to remember a beach holiday, and display shells and stones collected from the shore.

Our first basic one consisted of just sand, shells and stones, but she soon got more adventurous and wanted to create little scenes, so we made a crab and net scene, one with a mermaid and one with a pirate chest full of treasure!  Raid the toybox for small suitable toys, or check out the fish tank section of your pet shop.


Basic supplies you will need are:

  • A jam jar with a lid (wide necked ones are better so little hands can get in, but if not, you can move and position items with a spoon handle)
  • A handful of sand (collected from the beach or from the sandpit)
  • Selection of shells and small stones
  • Water and blue food colouring
  • Optional additional items - toy fish; creatures; characters; broken jewellery 'treasure'; fruit nets etc
Simply add a small layer of sand to the bottom of a clean, dry jar.


Arrange your seascape items.




Carefully pour in water (we coloured it with a few drops of food colouring first).


Secure lid.

Persuade child that this is not a snow globe, and doesn't benefit from shaking!




Apologies for the scary mermaid and slightly loony looking fish - they were 'essential' - apparently.

This craft featured on the Netmums channel, so do check out the video for more lovely jam jar uses, and see the links below:



My camping matches dry store jar
Red Ted Art's time capsule in a jar; snowglobes; tissue paper lanterns
Zing Zing Tree's glass painted keepsakes
Kids Chaos cookies in a jar

Kiddycharts Blog

Growing Family

20 comments:

  1. I adore this! So doing this with my son very soon. Thanks for the tip :)

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    1. Oh great, glad you like it. And indeed, hurrah for gin! x

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  2. Great idea! We must have a go at that one. We love the beach :)
    www.iknittedmeabeach.co.uk

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  3. Super idea! I'm going to make one of these next time Madam's been beach-combing - although she will need to learn to be a little more selective in choosing her treasures! x

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    1. Ahh yes, their idea of 'treasure' and ours can be very different! Have to persuade mine to leave dead crab legs behind!

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  4. I love this - we've got lots of shells from the beach so I think we'll have a go at something like this x x

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  5. Love this .... although its a great idea for me to convince OH that we NEED to go to the beach :-)

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    1. He needs convincing? What's wrong with him?!

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  6. This is gorgeous - absolutely LOVE it! An I am worried about showing it to the kids as they will want to go to the beach "now!" ;-)

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  7. Wow I love this - have pinned to summer colab board

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  8. Such a lovely idea. Have pinned to my summer fun board. Thanks for linking up with the pin it party.

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  9. Oh I love mermaids. They are all very pretty. Really looks like a fun activity to let the kids imagination go free.

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  10. This is adorable Liz, I need to go to a beach now. xxx

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  11. This is such a clever idea - I can imagine these as decorations in the garden or in the bathroom - much cheaper than getting a real aquarium kit too!

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  12. This so fabulous have shared everywhere! thanks for linking to #naturallycrafty

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  13. What fab little creations - I've been meaning to do this with the kids for ages, you've reminded me to get on with it! Thanks for linking up with #NaturallyCrafty

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  14. What a cracking idea! Love it and I know the kids will too - they are always moaning they don't have a jam jar full of sea glass like me (yet)! #naturallycrafty

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