Do you remember going to the beach when you were little and making sandcastles? Do you remember how disappointed you were when the tide came in and washed away all your hard work? Of course you do! This is Mama Jenn’s recipe for making permanent sand sculptures and sandcastles. (This is a small recipe and will need to be repeated a number of times for a really large sandcastle. Ask Mommy to go to a Home and Hardware center and have them cut a piece of 3/4" plywood to make a sturdy platform for building and displaying your sandcastle!)

Ingredients:

Old pot or used coffee can

1 cup sand

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup liquid starch

1 teaspoon powdered non-toxic tempera paint (optional)

1 can of flat or satin finish polyurethane varnish spray paint (optional)

Mix sand and starches together in pot and stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens, then cool. Kneed for one minute before beginning to sculpt. The mixture will harden as it dries and can be preserved by spraying it with varnish after it dries.