Summer memories: how to take the sea home 2017/09/05

Have you had a nice summer? Have you gone to the sea?

Did you bring some home? ¿No? So today I show you how to build a marine background at a cost of practically 0 for you to remember your beach vacations

It’s a laborious work, but I’ve made it with my daughters, and we’ve had a lot of fun!

The necessary materials are plenty, but all of them easy to get, I’m sure you have many of them at home:

• shoe box (preferably from an adult)
• paints (primary colors, white and scarlet red)
• paint brushes
• paint lids (I’ve used plastic trays)
• hot silicon
• scissors
• paper tape
• needle
• white or blue thread
• black marker
• colored cards
• seashells from the beach
• twigs (4 thin and 2 larger ones)
• pearls
• big rocks
• cutter or knife
• board
• transparent shiny spray
• fliers and newspaper

Firstly I protected the table surface with newspaper sticking it with paper tape, then I put my little ones to paint the skinny twigs with scarlet red paint. We let them dry in the sun

While they were painting, I removed the lid of the box and marked on one side 4 dots at 3cm from the edge. Having a large box, I separated the dots a couple centimeters in distance. It doesn’t matter if the measurements aren’t exact!

Then I marked the same dots on the other side and joined them with lines

I engraved the box creating some cracks

Again I put my little ones to paint the whole exterior of the box with the color they chose. Then we placed the box under the sun to dry. Being the box of a dark color, I had to apply 4 coats of paint to get the result I wanted (suggestion: let the paint dry after every coating)

Meanwhile I drew starfishes, fishes and even a seahorse on the colored cards

Once the box was dry on the outside, we passed to the inside. Mixing blue and white paint we obtained a light sky blue. My daughters painted the inside of the box a couple of times, even without waiting for the paint to completely dry, at the end I retouched with blue paint to recreate some waves

After painting the ocean, we focused on the background: to the leftover sky blue color we added some yellow to obtain a grey color, my daughters painted the newspaper that we let dry under the sun

I cut the figures

To a 10cm long thread, I tied a fish to the end (previously perforated by the needle) and on the other end a button I glued on the outer part of the box with hot silicon. Remember to include the designs of the fishes on the back part!

The starfish doesn’t require a thread or design on the back!

I glued the pearl to the seashell that looked the most adequate

It’s necessary to glue the rock to keep the box “on foot”. So I preferred to place it on one side to recreate an irregular marine background

First I placed the painted newspaper with paper tape to locate the best position to set it and then I proceeded to sticking it with hot silicon. If you used newspaper, as we fold and manipulate it, we will notice how the paint tends to crumble, don’t worry! This will help create a more realistic finish on the background

We’ve placed the red twigs at the height of the box, starting to arrange the background...

I added some more details and with the transparent spray I sprayed all the pieces to get a shiny effect

Once the spray is dry, I inserted the threads through the wholes and set with buttons, Ready! The sea at a ‘low cost’ in your house is ready!

This cute idea is a nice complement for a marine themed party and with fishes, like the party inspired on the Nemo kit, available in the store