Keeping holiday memories with plaster of paris plaques
A friend of mine shared her girls’ plaster of paris plaques they made from their holiday beach collections. She’s shared how they made them from moulds. Over to Natalie.
I don’t know about you, but we always seem to return from our family holidays with beach buckets full of all sorts of stones, rocks and shells that my girls, age 6 and 9, have spent many sun soaked hours collecting from the places we’ve visited.
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They carefully pick through them, pouring the sand from inside into miniature piles on my lounge floor as they find their favourites, chattering about where they were when they found them and why they like them so much. Unfortunately for me, they become incredibly attached to them and refuse to let me get rid of them, instead they spend their time arranging them in little bowls and placing them all over the house to become the ultimate dust traps until I eventually sneak them into a drawer and then finally the bottom of the garden!
This week has been no different, we’ve just returned from a wonderful holiday in Kent, house sitting for an old friend, where we visited a few different beaches and woodland areas and the girls enjoyed filling a pink bucket with stones and shells.
I decided though that Instead of trying to wrangle them towards the garden, that we would do something meaningful with them this time and so we made these memory plaques, using their very favourite beach treasures and some Plaster of Paris. They were so easy to do and the girls loved them! They were so impressed with them that they allowed me to dump the rest of the stones and shells into the garden, so it was a win for everyone!
If you want to have a go at making these you’ll need just a few things;
- Plaster of Paris (after reading a ton of reviews, I used this light plaster from Amazon
- Water
- Old bowl, tub or small bucket for mixing
- Old spoon or disposable spoon
- Playdough
- Bowl or cup to make the mould indent
- Paint (optional)
- Varnish (optional)
To make the plaster of paris plaques
1, Make the playdough into a thick disc and push the item into it that is the shape you want the mould to be. We used a shallow dish, but a mug would do. If you aren’t too worried about it being a perfect shape you could hollow it out with your fingers instead.
2, Arrange their treasures into the playdough with the wrong side facing up. They need to be pushed into the playdough about half way and make sure to leave space around each one.
3, Mix the plaster of Paris according the pack instructions,. We used 1.5 cups to 1 cup of water and it made just a touch too much. Once mixed pour into the moulds and then tap quite vigorously to dispel any air bubbles.
4, Leave to set for about an hour, it’ll set quicker in the heat so we put ours outside in the sun
5, Once it’s set, you need to peel off the play dough, some will likely get stuck, but it easily brushes off with a washing up brush!
6, You can leave it as it is, but we decided to paint the edge with gold paint and then varnish it to make the shells and stones shiny and to prevent any dust from the plaster coming off. These are both optional steps though.
Tips!
Don’t mix the plaster of Paris until just before you are ready to use it, as it’ll start to set and you want it to be runny!
My girls wanted to make circular plaques, but you could make handprints, footprints, or any shape you like, you just need something to press into the playdough to make that shape.
Don’t pour unused plaster down the drain as it may cause a clog. You can pour it into the bin, or dilute it with plenty of water and pour it into the garden.
You’ll need a good amount of playdough*, depending how big you want your plaque to be and how deep it needs to be for the size of your stones and shells. We used some old homemade playdough that we had in the cupboard.
I hope you have fun making your plaques and admire them for years to come. (find the printable instructions below).
I post photos my family’s adventures together on my Instagram account, Life_with_my_dolly_pegs
Plaster of paris holiday plaques
Equipment
- Old bowl, tub or bucket for mixing
- Old spoon or disposable spoon
- Bowl or cup to make the mould indent
Materials
- Plaster of Paris
- Playdough shop bought or homemade
- Varnish optional
- Paint optional
Instructions
- Make the playdough into a thick disc and push the item into it to make the indent for the mould.
- to arrange their treasures into the playdough with the wrong side facing up. They need to be pushed into the playdough about half way and make sure to leave space around each one.
- Mix the plaster of Paris according the pack instructions, we used 1.5 cups to 1 cup of water and it made just a touch too much
- Once mixed pour into the moulds and then tapquite vigorously to dispel any air bubbles.
- Leave to set for about an hour, it’ll set quicker in a warm place
- Once it’s set, you need to peel off the play dough, some will likely get stuck, but it easily brushes off with a washing up brush!
- You can leave it as it is, or paint the edge with paint and then varnish it to make the shells and stones shiny and to prevent any dust from the plaster coming off
Notes
Thanks Natalie – I love the idea of doing this. It’s great for holiday memories, but you could even replace beach or walk finds with small toys like dinosaurs or cars.
Let me know if you have any experience of doing crafts with plaster of paris.