How to Dye Sand at the Beach

Check out how to dye sand and make colorful sandcastles at the beach. You can also make Sand Art Bottles.

rainbow line of colored sand

Our spring break trip was to Gulf Shores, Alabama. I just love the white sand beaches around the Gulf of Mexico.

Before we left I planned some beach crafts and brought along the supplies for creative fun. We used sand to create tie-dye shirts.

The first craft activity was coloring sand.

Can You Dye Sand?

Yes, you can dye sand. Beach sand works particularly well because it is often finer than sandbox sand.

Colored sand is super simple and fun to make! The kids will love doing. They will think it is magic watching the sand turn a color.

bags of colored sand on the beach

It is important to use a vegan food dye as to not hurt the water supply or animals.

We just had four colors; red, yellow, and blue.

We combined them to make other colors. We achieved different shades of a single color by controlling the amount of food coloring we used in each bag.

My daughter came up with a rainbow of colors.

a rainbow of colored sand on the beach

She created the rainbow design above on the beach which got a lot of attention.

Many people came over and took photos of it. It was so pretty!

colorful sand castles on the beach

Make Colorful Sand Castles

My daughter and husband had a lot of fun making colorful sand castles. They put layers of various colors to make some really cool looking sand castles.

Unbelievably the sandcastles stayed in place for several hours.

We went back to take a look at sunset time and they were finally smashed.

man and daughter showing how to dye sand

A lot of rain came in overnight and the rough surf reshaped the beach a little bit.

There was just a little bit of the green left when we checked the next day.

It was fun making dying sand and making beach art even though it was lost forever when the waves came up.

collage with photos showing how to dye sand at the beach

Have you ever colored your own sand?

Yield: 1 lot

How to Dye Beach Sand

How to Dye Beach Sand

Dye sand to create colorful sandcastles on your next trip to the beach.

Active Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Difficulty easy
Estimated Cost $6

Materials

  • Natural Food Coloring
  • Quart or Gallon Zipper Bags

Tools

  • Shovel
  • Sand Toys

Instructions

    1. Place sand into a plastic bag that zips up.
    2. Add your food dye. Start with about 5-10 drops.
    3. Zip up the bag.
    4. Shake up the bag. Squeeze areas that are concentrated with color.
    5. Add more food coloring and shake until you have desired color.
    6. Enjoy making colorful sandcastles!

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34 Comments

  1. About what part sand to what part food coloring does it take to get a good color?

  2. It does look like fun but not environmentally safe. Remember a little and a little, adds up to a lot eventually. I would encourage everyone to look for environmental friendly alternatives to commercial food colouring. You definitely want those beautiful beaches to be available for your children to take their children to, someday. And it is much better for your children to eat eco-friendly food coloring too. Here are two sites that tell you how http://ecofriendlyfreckles.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-make-all-natural-food-coloring.html and https://www.fix.com/blog/how-to-make-safe-food-coloring/

  3. I have done this before but didn’t have much luck with the food coloring I used. So, I tried something else…craft paint. I just take my little bottles of paint and scoop out little holes in the sand for each color. I drip a few squirts into the holes and then give the kids spoons to stir the paint in the holes until they have the colors mixed. Then they are ready to build, fill containers, or whatever.

  4. After coloring the sand do you need to let the the food coloring and sand dry? Or after applying color to sand , once it’s mixed can you just add it to the bottle? Thanks in advance!

  5. I’ve done this with my girls a couple of times it’s always so much fun, next time you’re in my little corner of the world might I suggest sea glass collecting. It’s the only time my girls actually love getting up before dawn to head to the beach. Hope your family enjoyed our beautiful little beach town

  6. No way!! I need to save this!!! We are huge beach people and my kids would think this is the most awesome thing ever!

  7. What a great idea to pass time on that most beautiful beach. I ‘ll bet people would come and take pictures because it is something I have never seen or thought of before.

  8. I can not wait to try this! Sand castles are going to look so cool different colors. Thanks for the great idea.

  9. This is such a fun idea. My Daughter loves to go to the beach. I will have to do this with her next time we go.

  10. Ah, this is so clever! I need to remember to bring the supplies for this when I head to the beach with family. The sand castles look great!

  11. With summer weather coming, this is perfect! I will be keeping it in mind when we venture to the beach.

  12. That would be a lot of fun! We are going on a beach vacation this summer and I think I might do this with my kiddo. I think he would enjoy it.

  13. My daughter did most of the mixing and her hands were dyed ever so slightly. Not enough to stain anything before we got some soap and water on them.

  14. Very cute! Did the food coloring stain hands at all? I want to try this with my little cousins over the summer (ages 5 & 7) but we’ve done things like tie dye in the past and cleaning their hands always becomes a project in itself lol.

  15. All the people who came up and took photos were grown ups. They thought it was really cool.

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