Layered Beans Vase

What You Need:

• Selection of multi-colored dried beans, such as white beans, black beans, yellow split peas, navy beans, red beans, green split peas, or lentils.
• An empty, clear, glass bottle or vase
• Pouring measuring cup
• Funnel
• Artificial flowers
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Glitter (optional)

What You Do:

1. Tell your child that she will make a vase with multicolored layers of dried beans, a pretty item that she may want to keep or give as a gift.
2. Have your child use the measuring cup to pour a layer of dried beans into the clear empty glass bottle. If the beans are small enough to fit in a funnel, she could use the funnel as a method of getting beans into the jar. Optional: She may want to add some glitter in with each layer of beans, if she likes a sparkly effect.
3. After she has created the first layer (about 1 inch deep), she can pick a different color of beans to add for the second layer, and repeat step #2 with the new color of dried beans.
4. She can continue adding layers of dried beans, alternating colors to get a nice striped effect. Each layer can be about 1 inch deep, more or less.
5. She may want to fill the bottle all the way to the top with beans, or stop at a halfway point, whichever look she prefers.
6. Cut and tie a pretty ribbon around the top neck of the bottle vase.
7. Put artificial flowers inside the vase; the beans will help the flowers stand steady in the vase.

Your beautiful vase is now ready to display, or to give as a gift!