Sea Shell Crafts

One summer we were lucky enough to get to go to Flordia for a week. My brother and his family went in one van, and my Mom, Daughter, Granddaughter and I went in another van. We drove for what seemed like forever from Springdale, Arkansas to Flordia. We had already driven four and a half hours to Arkansas from Oklahoma. My Mom is a certified oil painting instructor, and was going for a week of painting classes. The rest of us were lucky enough to go just for the fun!

We did the usual tourist stuff by driving down to Orlando to go to Disney World. It was hot and the lines were extremely long and it was way too expensive for my budget. I did not think it was the most wonderful place on earth. We also toured the country side going to light houses and museums. We went swimming in the ocean and picked up lots of shells. All in all it was a trip I will never forget.

Once before I had gone to Flordia and picked up shells, while Mom was in classes. Instead of bringing the usual gifts back from Flordia to give my friends, I brought back some of Flordia! I made everyone a little jar with Flordia sand and shells or "Flordia Real Estate." I am not so sure it was smart to have all those shells and sand in my suitcase to fly back. Thank goodness it was before the extra charge for extra weight! I also took a very large jar and filled it with shells for me to keep. The photo below is one of the gift jars:

On the family trip my Granddaughter took the sea shells she had picked up and made a wonderful memory photo frame. She hot glued the sea shells on to a photo frame and then put photos of her trip in the frame. She sorted and sorted her shells trying to decide which ones she wanted to use. For a little girl I think she did a super job and was very careful with the hot glue!

I have seen other craft projects using sea shells, such as covering a small box to use for keepsakes, jewelry made from sea shells, magnets made to look like animals, shells placed inside a hollow glass lamp base, shells incased in resin to make table tops and lots and lots of other creations.

Do you have a sea shell craft idea to share?