Searching for shells and sea glass is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and I could not be more thankful that my daughter feels the same way. We are often bundled up in the winter combing our favorite spots for treasures from the sea. Any time we are at the beach you will always see the two of us walking slowly and looking down, and I often have to remind myself to look up and enjoy the ocean.
We recently visited a beach down the Cape and found so many scallop shells and while I normally fill antique mason jars with my favorite finds, scallop shells are hard to really appreciate in a jar. While I’m sure this idea isn’t new by any means, the thought came to me while rinsing the shells and thinking that I wished they could stay the color they are when they are wet. There may be a product specifically for shells, but without doing any research the first product that came to mind was polyurethane.
Since I am not typically a crafty person per se and we are on a stay home order because of the virus, I just ordered what I assumed would work from Amazon. I ordered the gloss finish because I wanted the shells to look as glossy as they did when they were fresh out of the ocean.
I just used a small paintbrush and brushed a thin coat on to the shells and let them dry for a few hours.
You can see what a huge difference it made. Whether or not this was the correct product for this craft, I am thrilled with the outcome.
These are what the shells looked like before,
and these are what they looked like after. The colors are just so beautiful!
All I needed now was to order a few shadow box frames with linen backs and a bottle of Gorilla Glue.
Then it was time to create some wall art!
Once I had the shells lined up I used a little bit of Gorilla Glue on the back edges of the shells and held them in place for a few seconds. That glue is very strong so make sure you place it where you want it because it is not going to move. You should also wear some sort of gloves when using this glue which we learned the hard way. I’m pretty sure my daughter no longer has fingerprints on a few of her fingers lol.
Just a quick side note, yes that is my childhood ruler 🥰
This was one of the pieces I created, and the one shown in the blog header is one my daughter created.
Now we have these beautiful frames filled with our favorite shells to forever make us happy! Our next project is going to be with sand dollars!