• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Work With Us
    • Media Kit
  • Disclosure
  • Privacy
  • Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

we know stuff

A Long Island Parenting Blog

  • long island
  • Recipes
    • Desserts
    • Snacks
    • Muffins
    • Meals
    • Drinks
    • Jams
    • Soups
  • Parenting
    • special needs
    • raising families
    • learning
  • Crafts
    • kids
    • nature
    • stem
    • holiday
  • Travel
    • florida
    • USA

0 October 1, 2014 Crafts

Kids Craft: Vacation Terrariums

We Know Stuff

The start of a school year always brings to mind new starts, most likely because I’m a teacher and it is, indeed, a new beginning.  And as with all new beginnings, it is fun to reminisce about wonderful memories of the season past.  This particular summer was probably our best one yet – with The Tornado being 3 ½, we have been able to travel more than ever before, as we are no longer loaded down with cribs and diapers and high chairs.  Given that he also dropped his afternoon nap, we had at least 2 more hours in the day to fill, and thus, summertime adventures became as much a necessity as they were a choice.

And fill the time we did!  We took trips big and small, played in the water, visited new parks…the list is endless.  And now that summer is ending, I find myself thinking over all the fun we had, looking over all of our mementos, and thinking about what I could do with them instead of simply tucking them into a box, to be forgotten over the course of our daily lives.  I wanted the tokens from our trip to be within our daily midst, so in our busiest moments, they would be there as reminders of our fun, light-hearted times as a family.


wks_terrariums4

logo
Food Advertisements by

I came up with a couple solutions.  When we were first married, we started a tradition of buying a postcard every time we took a trip.  On the back, we write down the things we did and memorable moments from the trip.  Sometimes we mail it to ourselves, but most of the time we bring it home with us.  Even years later, when I reread the things we wrote down, I can remember everything, and it makes me smile.

You can keep your postcards in anything: a glass bowl, a photo album, a pretty box.  I keep ours in the flower girl basket from our wedding; my mom and I worked on it together, and it’s another way to keep my happy memories out in the open.

wks_terrariums2

Another way we preserve the memories of past trips requires a little more thought beforehand, as you have to collect the materials throughout your trip, but makes for a very pretty collection over time.  And once you have your materials, it might literally be the easiest project you did this entire summer.

wks_terrariums3

VACATION TERRARIUMS

Materials

  • Sand/shells or Dirt/rocks (a decent amount, since you can’t come back to get more!)
  • Any small mementos (tickets, wristbands, etc.)
  • A glass container (make sure it is big enough to fit all of your materials, but not so big that the glass overshadows the memories)

Directions

Step 1:  Throughout your trip or vacation, collect mementos from your activities: tickets to museums, amusement parks, zoos; wristbands from concerts; pictures of your family.  We usually collect sand & shells from the beach (this year’s shells are a bit…jagged.  The Tornado wanted to collect them, and he was so proud, I didn’t have the heart to replace them with perfect ones I’d found).  If we aren’t visiting the beach, we collect dirt & rocks (yes, dirt & rocks – when we visited DC, it was pretty cool to think about all the amazing things that happened on that dirt).   A Ziploc bag or empty water bottle works just fine for containing the sand or dirt (and keeping it from emptying into your luggage).

Step 2: Air out your sand or dirt.  This will act as the base layer in your terrarium, and you don’t want any moisture whatsoever, as it will ruin the rest of your mementos.  I typically pour my sand or dirt into a small bowl and set it out for a week or two, stirring it around every day.  Stirring it guarantees all of the material dries out, and gives you a way to gauge when you can move on to the next step.

Step 3: Decide how you would like to label your glass.  For some of our trips, I actually hand drew the flag of the country we visited.  When a flag was beyond my abilities as an artist, I simply wrote the name of the location directly on the glass with chalkboard marker.  You could also do some labels – I love the chalkboard labels that are out right now.

Step 4: Lay out your collection.  Since your sand or dirt is your base layer, pour it into the glass container; if the opening of the glass is small and if your sand/dirt is fine enough, you can use a funnel to limit the mess.

Step 5: It’s time to add your mementos!  Arrange them in a way that is pleasing to your eye; usually working from back to front, with the largest items in the back of your terrarium and the smallest in front, will enable people to see everything you want them to!

Step 6: Find a home for your lovely package of memories, and enjoy taking a moment or two to reminisce!

We’ve been collecting sand for several years, so now we have quite a little collection of pretty glass bottles on our shelf.  I love seeing varying shades of sand from different places and thinking about the cool things we did while we visited that particular town.  I hope you had a wonderful summer; how do you plan to remember it?

Brianne

0
Share5
Tweet
Pin
5 Shares

Categories: Crafts Tags: kids crafts, summer crafts, terrarium crafts

About weknowstuff

We Know Stuff is an award-winning lifestyle blog written by two sisters, Denine & Daniele. Based in New York, we cover a variety of topics that interest families such as recipes, crafts, pets, safer skincare, fitness, parenting, education, special needs, and travel. We Know Stuff won Best Blog of Long Island from Bethpage Federal Credit Union in 2017 & 2015. The blog was also voted #2 in Pop Sugar’s Circle of Mom’s Top 25 NY Moms!

Previous Post: « How To Save Money On Clothes
Next Post: Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Food Advertising by logo

Load up on new recipes, exclusive goodies + more

get exclusive content
straight to your inbox!

logo
Food Advertisements by
© 2010-2021 We Know Stuff, all rights reserved. All images and content are the property of We Know Stuff. If you would like to use our images or content, please contact us. We serve as an affiliate for Amazon, and other organizations and individuals, whose products and/or services we recommend. In some cases, we receive referral bonuses or commissions for our promotional efforts. Any monies earned help us run and maintain this blog. Please read our Privacy Policy.

Footer

Stay Connected

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright© 2021 · All Rights Reserved · WE KNOW STUFF & ROCK SEA MEDIA Developed In Lousiana with Heart + Soul ♕

weknowstuff

We Know Stuff
Today’s forecast...🥶 Today’s forecast...🥶
Winter sky. ❄️ ☁️ Winter sky. ❄️ ☁️
Low tide 🌊 Low tide 🌊
Longest week everrrrrr. Longest week everrrrrr.
A little sunshine goes a long way. A little sunshine goes a long way.
Looking forward to a new year of full of possibili Looking forward to a new year of full of possibilities!
Goodbye 2020! Happy New Year to all! Wishing every Goodbye 2020! Happy New Year to all! Wishing everyone health and happiness in 2021! ❤️
Chilly beach walk🥶 🌊 Chilly beach walk🥶 🌊
Just an elf doing elfie things...🎅🏻 Just an elf doing elfie things...🎅🏻
Winter the Dolphins Beach Club makes every day fee Winter the Dolphins Beach Club makes every day feel like Summer @wintersbeachclub #familyvacation #educationalvacation #clearwaterbeach #winterthedolphin #clearwatermarineaquarium @flfunadventures  #choicehotels #ascendhotelcollection #staywithwinter
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Sign up for our Newsletter
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
This site uses cookies: Find out more.