Bottle Sand Art Ideas

Whether it's a DIY project for your home or a way to spend an afternoon with the kids exploring their creativity, sand art is a fun, inexpensive project with results that you'll want to display for years to come. An empty vase or glass container is your palette and an entire rainbow of color choices are at your disposal. The hard part is settling on a design!

Plan out the materials you’ll need. Do you want to make a vase? A terrarium? How many colors of sand do you want to use? Generally speaking, most pieces look best if they have a specific color palette that’s kept to. You can find colored sand at most craft supply stores. You’ll also need:
Glass bottles
Objects like plants, if desired
A funnel
A device for moving sand, like a paintbrush or spoon
Start layering the sand. This is easiest to do if you use a funnel – you can either use an actual funnel or a piece of paper (where you can control the size of the tip). Move the funnel around to aim where you want the sand to lie – uneven layers look best (and are easiest, anyway).
The funnel is the simplest device to create interesting looking layers and to make a pattern. And the beauty of sand art is that if you mess up, you can just start back over.
If it doesn’t look how you imagined it to look, use a tool like a paintbrush to adjust the sand into the appropriate position.
Add in objects as you please. If you’re going for a terrarium look, you may wish to add objects like rocks, plants, or twigs to your bottle. Some people like to put rocks in the bottom so if the bottle is to be lifted up, you can see the “roots.”
You can add a smaller vase or bottle inside your bottle and put sand around it. Then you can easily put something inside the smaller vase – and it'll look like it's buried in the sand.
If there is a cork or top, seal it with a hot glue gun. Once the bottle is full and you're happy with your creation, line the top or cork with a small line of hot glue (you don't want it spreading) and apply gently to the base.
This isn't necessary, but it does keep sand from going everywhere should it knocked over or fall from a ledge.