As you will already know if you’ve read some of my past posts, I LOVE THE SEA. My lottery-win fantasies revolve around one central vision of my family living in any one of those gorgeous beach houses featured in my favourite magazine, Coastal Living. I can see myself gazing out at the sea every day through floor-to-ceiling glass walls or going for long walks in sand that’s damp from lapping waves.
Living in Toronto, the only time I’m around salt water is when a pot is boiling on the stove.
The other day, while daydreaming about past beach vacations (instead of writing the advertising copy that I was supposed to be writing) I had a great idea for a beachy craft.
I had recently bought a pack of those tiny corked bottles from the craft section of the 
dollar store, with a plan to fill each one with the beach sand that I’d collected each time we’d visited a different area over the years. Once the bottles were filled, I would use fancy script to label each one. So far, I’ve collected sand from Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas, St. Martin, different parts of Mexico and Florida. I hope to visit many more places in the years to come (especially the Hawaiian islands!!), and what better way to keep a little piece of each place close by.
My beachy craft idea goes a step further, incorporating some tiny shells and a flip flop charm to turn it into a miniature beach scene. I attached the eye pin and chain to make it into a memento necklace, but I think I’d rather just keep my little bottled beach vignette on my desk to keep the beach within sight all year round.
If you would like to make one, here’s how:
Beach in a Bottle
✓ One tiny buck store corked bottle
✓ A couple teaspoons of collected beach sand
✓ Some tiny shells
✓ A small flip flop charm
✓ One small eye pin and a chain (optional)
Fill the bottle halfway with sand, use tweezers to drop the flip flop charm into place, then place your shells in the sand and just use a long needle to nudge them into however you’d like them to be positioned.
Voila! The beach in a bottle.
Create-a-holic Writer 
crazyquilter51 said,
July 22, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Such an inexpensive way to make a valuable souvenir. Beautiful!
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aranislandgirl said,
July 15, 2015 at 10:36 pm
Fortunately I am surrounded by the beach, couldn’t live without it really. This is a lovely idea, would be a nice item for souvenir shop to sell.
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greg1948 said,
July 15, 2015 at 3:38 pm
You might want to qualify this by coastal living in warm climates–but maybe not. I have heard of people collecting sand samples from their vacation. What I ended up with instead is seashells from everywhere. Nice idea for beach sand storage–better than jam jars which is what I would have used had I thought of it. I do not think I would want to wear it around my neck, however.
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greg1948 said,
July 15, 2015 at 3:39 pm
I forgot to say that the small seashells are in—–jam jars.
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