Simple Shell Frame
We went on a pretty awesome family vacation to start off our summer, and one of our stops along the way was to Fort Myers, FL. Sadly, we did not have as much time there as I would have liked, but we made the most of the time we did have! Sunset on the beach with just the five of us is a new core memory.
When we went to Norfolk, VA and the Outer Banks back in 2018, I covered a frame with shells we picked up while we were there. I framed a picture of us and my sister’s family (who we were visiting) from that trip, and it’s been a fun reminder ever since. I knew I wanted to do something similar after this trip.
I did not do my best work documenting this process, but I will tell you what I did and show you in pictures what I can.
There really wasn’t any rhyme or reason to the shells we picked up. We grabbed whatever we thought was pretty. We did end up with a nice assortment of shapes and sizes. And colors! I was fascinated by all of the different colors we found.
I bought an unfinished wood frame from Michaels this time. It was only $1, making this a very inexpensive project! The only thing I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t have glass or plastic in it like other store-bought frames. I don’t remember everything about my frame from 2018, but it looks like I used a plain white ready-made frame for that one. Maybe you have a frame already that you could use!
Although I briefly considered using E6000 to attach the shells, I used my glue gun instead. The faster drying time is what sold me.
Since I bought an unfinished frame, I needed to paint it. I thought about painting it white or black, but I kept going back to blue. So that’s what I did. One coat of paint and it was done. I didn’t stress too much about it because I knew most of the frame would be covered with shells.
Once the paint dried, I started gluing on the shells. The biggest challenge was gluing them without burning myself. There really isn’t a lot of surface area to put glue on on the underside of shells. Now that I’m typing this out, I realize I could have used the little silicone finger protectors I have. If you haven’t bought those from Dollar Tree yet, I highly recommend them!
I was honestly hoping to have less frame showing, but I’m kind of loving the blue. When I looked closely at the last frame I made, there’s actually quite a bit of white showing. I think that’s just how it goes! Unless you have a lot of tiny shells to fill in the gaps, I suppose.
Another thought I had after the fact is that I could have used sand to fill in the gaps. We didn’t intentionally bring home sand, but when I started unpacking the shells, I found quite a bit hiding in and around them.
This will be a lovely reminder of our trip and the time we spent together.
What would you do with a bunch of shells? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Happy crafting!
