This page is about making sandy beaches for those seaside, camping or cottage scenes.
Making a sailor's retreat? see marine, pirates, water
What about fish? or do you need boats? Are you making chairs?
See also mermaids, sushi, Mediterranean, ice marine and seafood
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Baxter Pointe Villa - extraordinarily real beach house by Otterine
Beach House - 1:48 project by Fern Rouleau
Beach House - by Linda in Ohio
Beach House B&B - by Susan's Miniatures
Beach Hut - from Sherpa, Dollhouse Designs
Beach Hut - from Small Packages
Beach Memory Box - from St Albert Minis
Beachy Keen - Tanya had an old beach chair in her stash that was given to her by a mini friend long ago, She decided to repaint it and give it a new seat, even making a beach bag to match it.
Big Wave Dave's Surf Shop - by Joanne Sian Campbell on Pinterest
Caribbean Cottage - from Petworth Miniatures
Caribbean Vacation - by Paula Isaacs
Crabby's Beach Shack - by Beth Bergman, Minimanor
GD's Beach Scene - from Chris P's Minis and More
Long Island Vignette - by Nasun
Ocean Room - by Peaches
Skeleton Beach - by Wanna in El Paso
House Plaques - from Cottage Kitty (Julie Lawton)
Beach Towels - from Towel World. Use Viva 1 ply soft & strong paper towels, iron to freezer paper.
Beach and Nautical-themed Miniatures - from About.com
Beach Air Mattress - from The Spruce
Beach House - by Grazhina
Beach House - QS project by Anna-Carin Betzen
Beach Scene - from mini mania
E-Z Water, Using to Make Water Features - The Spruce
Making a Beach - from My Dollhouse Days, using styrofoam
Mussels - CDHM
Oars - 17-17 Miniatury
Palm Tree - The Spruce
Seashells - The Spruce
Toy Sailboat - The Spruce
Building a Beachside Bungalow - from mini a Day
Beach Color Palette - Color-Hex
By the Seaside - Pinterest album by Kate West
To make a "bumpier" natural beach sand, I'd try making a fabric base for it using a sand colored cloth soaked in Stiffy fabric stiffener. Starch might work, but I'm not sure if it would be strong enough. If you can't get the stiff fabric to hold up, try some Rigid Wrap. It's a gauze impregnated with plaster. Just wet the gauze in water and shape. Since gauze has larger holes, you still might want to soak some fabric in glue and lay it over the dried Rigid Wrap shapes.
The best thing to use for sand is the sand found in Michael's Floral department with all the silk flowers. The sand comes in small and large bags in varying colors and is of a consistency that perhaps is what you are looking for the sandbox. The second type of sand that is finer in texture is the art craft type used to fill bottles et cetera with colored sand layers. Again this comes in a variety of colors and can be found at Michael's and other art & craft stores.
Used a sand coloured fabric, draped over little, scrunched pieces of paper towel, to form tiny hillocks of sand. When satisfied with the shaping of the cloth, paint the surface of the fabric with a slightly watered down tacky glue, and shake fine sand over the wet glue. When the glue dries, the fabric dried into solid miniature sand dunes, and it actually is sandy.
Places such as Michaels and Joann's Fabrics sell hot wire tools. One of those tools is a handle with a rod sticking out of it. You can quickly carve a piece of the insulation foam or floral foam with this small tool. Acrylic paint sticks nicely to the foam. Paint the foam base the color of the sand, let it dry and then brush on Elmer's glue and sift sand over it.
Fine sand can be purchased in bags at several places. Joannes has it in the floral department area and Michaels also has it. It is used for crafts where people layer colors of sand inside of clear glass jars. Also $ stores.
To use sand gathered from a salt water beach, sift the dry sand, put it in a pan and run water into the pan, stirring the sand and letting the dirty water overflow. After it is rinsed and most of the water is poured off, spread it on a stack of absorbent material to dry.
Use old towels as the bottom layer followed by paper towels on which the sand sits. When dry I pick up the paper and tip the sand into a container for storage.
Use a combination of the beach sand which has small dark specs in it and also the light colored sand from the craft store so the finished product will not be uniformly pristine on color. Back in the dunes, there is a lot of debris and dirt blown into those areas.
Try the foam insulation from a spray can be used to seal around pipes. Spray a bit and if it isn't what you want, cut and smash until you get it looking like you want. However, you can't use spray glue because it would melt the foam. You would have to use a water based glue such as Aleene's or Elmer's.
there are several aerosol textured sprays which can be used. Make sure to paint your base a sand colour first!
Ideas about what is needed for these projects
Miniature Seashore on Pinterest
Beach Bums Souvenirs
Star of the Beach (starfish)
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