Our theme for the last class was Under the Sea (I thought it would be fun to do a snail). We used acrylic paint, sharpie markers, clear gel medium, sand and glitter.

It’s a great little project. Super fun, super affordable…and I’m hooked. Here how it works. First we sketch our creature onto the mini-canvas (The one shown here is 4″X5″ and goes for about 3 bucks). The next step is to paint in the image using acrylic paint. Once you’ve finished painting it’s time to add some texture.

I added clear gel medium to the bottom of this canvas everywhere where I wanted the sand to be . The trick is to really lay it on there thick. Once I had it coated I took some beach sand and sprinkled it over the top of the canvas. Then I shook it over a garbage can to remove the excess. Any where there was gel the sand stuck… everywhere else it shook off.

My students did the same thing. Some of them used sand, some used glitter, some used both. The gel starts out translucent white but dries clear so its easy to see what you’re doing. Once it’s dried you can outline you character using a sharpie permanent marker and it looks fantastic. You can really get creative with a project like this. I highly recommend it for kids 5 and up.

One word of caution. Acrylic paint and sharpie markers do not wash out of clothing so make sure you wear something old or cover up with a smock. Have fun.