This gorgeous seashell keepsake made from homemade sand clay is the perfect way to create sweet summer memories with your kids! What better way to preserve your child’s tiny handprint and remember all the fun you had in the summer sun?
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As you can imagine, with four young kids at home, we’ve made our fair share of handprint keepsakes.
Whether on canvas, paper or salt dough, our kids love lending me their tiny hands to create artwork—and I love having lots of sweet mementos that I’ll be able to look back on when they’re grown!
We love hanging salt dough handprints on our Christmas tree, but the summer is just as great a time to create memories together. So why not use beach sand and seashells to create extra-special keepsakes that will remind you of warm sunny weather and family beach outings?
…And if ever you don’t happen to live near a beach (we don’t), not a problem! You can easily use sand from your sandbox and dollar-store seashells to create this lovely summer-themed keepsake with your kids.
You’ll definitely want to add this project to your Summer Bucket List! (And if you’re looking for an alternative keepsake craft idea that is super low effort, check out this Free Summer Handprint Art Template.)
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Skip the planning and simplify summer break with this set of 280 activity cards that your child can pull out of a jar whenever they’re bored.
Required Materials
Here’s what you’ll need to immortalize your little one’s tiny handprint in the form of a cute beach-themed keepsake!
For the sand clay:
- Play sand (we took some of the sand from our sandbox—just make sure to remove any large clumps and/or rocks)
- Flour
- Salt
- Water
Note: The quantities indicated in the recipe below should make enough sand clay for two handprint keepsakes. If you’re planning on making more than two, or if your child is older than ours and has larger hands, simply multiply the quantities accordingly.
For decorating:
- Seashells (we bought ours at the dollar store because we don’t live anywhere near the beach, but feel fee to use seashells that you collected yourself to make this keepsake extra special!)
- Decorative beads (optional)
- Elmer’s Glue-All (or another strong glue)
- Mod Podge or clear glaze (to seal the artwork and prevent cracks)
How to Make a DIY Sand Clay Keepsake with Seashells (Step-by-Step)
1. Combine Dry Clay Ingredients
Start by combining 1 cup of sand, ⅔ cups of all-purpose flour and ⅓ cup of salt in a small bowl and stirring with a spoon. (Double the quantities if you’ll be making more than two handprints.)
2. Add Water
Add ½ cup of water and stir until well combined.
If, when you’re done stirring, the texture of the sand clay seems too wet, add a bit of flour. If it seems too crumbly, add a bit more water.
3. Knead Sand Dough
Knead the sand clay with your hands until it has a doughy texture similar to salt dough (though it will feel a bit rougher due to the sand).
4. Shape & Flatten Sand Dough
Make a ball with your sand clay and flatten it using a rolling pin or your hands. I didn’t bother with the rolling pin, but I did make sure that the shape and texture of my sand clay disk were nice and smooth.
5. Create Impression
Have your child offer up one of their hands and press it into the sand clay. Make sure you press down enough to leave a deep imprint in the sand dough.
6. Position Beads & Seashells
Once the imprint is made, break out the seashells and beads (we went with earthy tones that complemented the seashells nicely) and place them all around the handprint without pressing down.
This will ensure that all the seashells and beads are perfectly positioned when comes the time to press them into the clay!
My five-year-old decided to make her own and went a little nuts with the beads and seashells. It’s hard to tell, but there’s actually a handprint hiding in there somewhere!
7. Glue Beads & Seashells
Once all the beads and seashells are where you want them to be, press them into the sand clay, adding a dab of Elmer’s Glue-All (or any strong glue) to ensure that they’ll stay where you want them to.
8. Let Dry
Let the clay dry completely—ideally by leaving it out in the hot summer sun, but you can also use your oven if that’s more convenient for you.
If you do use an oven, just make sure to keep it on its lowest temperature setting (ours was 170°F) to avoid melting the beads and releasing harmful fumes from the glue.
I did some research and couldn’t find a definitive answer about whether it was safe to put Elmer’s glue in the oven, so I wasn’t comfortable raising the temperature any higher than 170°F.
But regardless of whether you’re leaving it out in the sun to dry or placing it in the oven, make sure you flip it around about halfway through to allow the back of the keepsake to dry as well!
9. Add Glaze or Mod Podge (Optional)
Once the clay is completely dry, cover the front of it with Mod Podge or clear aerosol glaze in order to protect it and prevent it from cracking. This step is optional, but recommended—especially if you’re planning on keeping it for a long time!
And that’s it! We just love how ours turned out and how different (and sandy) it looks compared to traditional salt dough. I hope that you love yours as much as we did ours!
P.S. If you have any leftover sand, try making Beach Moon Sand or Sand Play Dough for your little one to play with!
Related Summer Crafts & Activities
Looking for more fun ways to make summer memories with your kids? Check out these articles:
- Puffy Paint Ice Cream Cones
- Butterfly Suncatcher (with Free Template!)
- DIY Pipe Cleaner Bubble Wands
- 25 Refreshing Summer Water Activities for Kids
hii i love these and think to use them as a summer school craft for the kids. Can you use normal sand found at the beach instead of play sand? as it is quite expensive and its coming out of my pocket
Yes, absolutely! We used sand from a sandbox, so I don’t see why beach sand wouldn’t work. You may want to sift it first to remove small rocks and other debris. 🙂
Hi there! I’m hoping to make these with the kids I babysit but one of them is celiac, do you know if it would work okay with a different kind of flour?
Unfortunately I haven’t tested it with different types of flour, so I can’t say for sure. But if it helps, the recipe for the dough was based on a recipe for salt dough (the kind that you use to make salt dough Christmas ornaments) with some of the flour and salt replaced with sand… so if you can find a gluten-free salt dough recipe that is made using a different type of flour, you may be able to make the same swaps I made by experimenting with the proportions.
I just made 3 of these with grandkids. I now realized we have not put anything underneath them. They were flattened and decorated on a glass table top in our kitchen. Will they dry enough to pick them up and place them on something else?
Thanks, Rhonda
The bottom probably won’t dry on a glass table top, but after a few days, once the top has hardened some, you should be able to lift them with a spatula and place them on parchment paper so they can finish drying.
Just made these with my granddaughter. Can we keep these outside?
Hope you enjoyed making them! I wouldn’t recommend keeping them outside, as they could get ruined if they get wet.
How long did you need to bake the handprints for at 170?
Hmmm, I made this project a few years ago, so I don’t remember the exact time it took to bake, but I think it was about 2 hours? I just kept a close eye on it and flipped it over when the top felt dry and solid. (I recommend placing a fresh sheet of parchment paper underneath when you flip it over, so that the top doesn’t come into contact with anything humid.)
I’m going to be making this again soon, so I’ll make a note of how long it needed to dry and will come back and update the post with that information!
For VBS can we just let the handprints air dry naturally inside? Do they need to be on nonstick parchment or foil or wax paper?
You can, but it will probably take several days (maybe even a full week) for the keepsakes to fully dry indoors. Nonstick parchment paper would probably work, but if the clay is still quite wet when you set them down to dry, some of it might tear off and end up sticking to the underside anyway. When I dried mine in the oven, I placed them on silicone oven mats, which meant there was no way for pieces to tear off and stick to the back of the keepsakes. So if you have them, that is what I would recommend using. Either way, you should flip over the keepsakes and place them on a clean, non-greasy as soon as the top seems dry enough. This will give the back a chance to dry as well.
Thank you. Also, have you tried this mixture in molds? I made some yesterday and thought it would fall out like brown sugar or at the beach, but it did not. Letting it dry completely, but not sure it is going to come out. I did use cornstarch in the molds.
Unfortunately, I haven’t tried placing the mixture in molds, so I can’t share any specific tips on how to do that.
What kind of molds did you use? I get the feeling that silicone molds *might* work, since you could leave the shapes in for a bit longer and then pop them out once they’ve dried a bit and are able to hold their shape. But I probably wouldn’t use solid molds, as it would be difficult to get the clay out, and it probably wouldn’t dry properly.
Did the molds end up working for you?
Can you make the clay ahead of time. Thinking of doing it for VBS. have lots of kids.
You should be able to make it in advance as long as you don’t keep it more than a few days. The dough will start drying out as soon as it comes into contact with air, so you’ll need to wrap it very tightly with plastic wrap to prevent that from happening. If you store it in the fridge, you’ll need to bring it back to room temperature before using it.
Hey there, I was hoping you would give a small update on how your keepsake has held up! About to head to the beach for a day trip and want to make sure all goes well. Thanks!
Hi Kayla, the keepsake has held up perfectly! It’s been almost two years since we made it and we still have it. These are no cracks in it, and since we glued the beads and seashells in place, they all stayed exactly where they were. I hope you have fun at the beach and that your keepsake turns out great!