She Glues Sea Shells

It's entirely possible there's nothing I love more than finding expensive art and then making it myself. While I'm not going to be copying any Van Goghs anytime soon, on most stuff I can come pretty close.

This project started around Christmas last year, as I was perusing Etsy for a non-fake-flower door wreath. (I've just got this thing about fake flowers.) While I was looking through a variety of white berry wreaths, I came across this one.

Ok, I'm not really a huge fan of beach decor. I think to theme an entire room with jars of sand, flip flops on the wall as art and nautical print all over belongs, if anywhere, only in a vacation condo. And only if it's actually on the beach. It doesn't count if it's in Nebraska somewhere.

But come on. That wreath is gorgeous! I was hooked (get it?). I was set to snatch it up... when I looked at the price tag.

$98.

Are you kidding me?!

So several months later, using the natural (read: free) resources located in my backyard, I set out to make my own!

Here's how I made the $98 wreath for a quarter of the price.

You'll need a high temp glue gun, a package of glue sticks, around 100 shells, a straw wreath and ribbon or twine.

For two weeks, I went to the beach every other day picking up as many shells as I could find. I stuck with mostly light-colored ones just because our door is a darker color. Something I learned as I was making the first wreath is that the shells don't need to be perfect. You're going to be layering them, so all shapes and sizes work and it's easy to hide the flaws.

The Jacksonville beaches don't have a lot of the exotic shells, so I picked up a bag of random shells (including those large spiral showpiece shells) from Hobby Lobby for $7 and a bag of small spiral shells for $5. I also bought the starfish from Hobby Lobby for about $5. The straw wreath was $4 and the twine was $3. I already had the glue gun and glue sticks, but to buy those will run you about $10. 

Pick a starting point and start gluing!

Work your way around the wreath, fitting in shells. It's kind of like a puzzle. At the top, I layered the shells so they made a bridge over the ribbon, so if it moves or I want to tie a different ribbon there eventually, they aren't actually glued to it.

I used most of the beach-found shells for the bottom layer, and used the prettier spiral shells to create depth on top.

The finished product was a huge hit. I've already made another one for our sweet neighbors and have requests lined up for when I have time to make more.

This would be a great project to do with kids, letting them pick out which shells to use next, as long as you're doing the gluing!

the finished wreath!