Sand Paint Starfish

A few weeks ago we made some Bubble Wrap Fish Prints. They looked so lonely on the paper all by themselves. So, we're going to start making some more ocean animals to make a big underwater mural for our wall. 

Today I wanted to make starfish. Since the shape is really simple I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use some textured paint. Monkey loved this one since we took sand right from his sand box!

I got the idea for the sand paint here: http://homegrownfriends.com/home/sand-painting/

Supplies: sand, paint, paintbrushes, card stock, starfish template, paint containers 

I chose to print and cut out the starfish because I knew I couldn't draw it as perfect myself. Then I traced it onto the card stock and cut that for Monkey to paint on. 

I would recommend card stock, or even thin cardboard (reuse a cereal box, maybe?) because the paint is quite heavy once you add in the sand. 

The next step was to get the paint ready. The website above recommended one part paint to one part sand. I found this turned out to be too much sand. The sand almost seemed to drink up the paint. So I had to add more paint. 

In the end I probably did a mix closer to 1/4 sand and 3/4 paint. It was obvious that there was sand in the paint, but it wasn't so thick that the brush was getting stuck when I was mixing it. 

Monkey tried to help mix but it was a little too hard for him. It was a very strange consistency. 

Then it was time for Monkey to get to work. 

I taped the starfish to the cardboard so that they wouldn't move around while he was painting. He's not very delicate...

The paint was very, very thick. It took Monkey a little while to get used to. 

They turned out better than I hoped! There is so much texture. 

Mar