Hey, Mr. Sandman....

We are all about the tropical, beachy Christmas at our house. A couple of our friends are almost as beachy as we are so it was time to make a snowman into a sandman.

I bought the long, thin canvasses at Wal Mart, 2 for $5.99. They are 7 x 14. It's a very cool size. I traced around some cups and bowls to get an outline for my sandmen. I painted around the outline with a carribean blue. Two coats. I left my sandman interior white - the natural canvas- but I wish I had painted it a very light sand color. It would have made the next step a bit easier. I painted the "snowman" shape with Mod Podge and then sprinkled it with course beach sand and shook off the excess. I let that dry completely. Then I coated the entire "snowman" shape with Mod Podge again and sprinkled a second coat of sand over it. I definitely had to do 2 coats with the white underneath. I might could have done 1 coat if I had painted the shape a light sand color. I will do the next ones with the tan paint base coat for sure. I let that dry completely and then painted a top coat of Mod Podge to seal the whole thing. I wanted to be sure the sand would stay on the picture!

Then I went through my stash of collected shells and chose the right shapes for the nose and buttons. I added a Sand Dollar to the circle under the face. I used a clear "super glue" type glue to hold these on.
I also added a little tiny starfish in the sky.

A few little aquariaum gravel rocks for the eyes and mouth and this guy is finished and full of personality!!