Craft Time: Sea Shell Picture Frame

What's cuter than my super cute kids? And more fun than shaking sand out of a wet swim suit?

Making this!

So here's the thing of it: if you are a super crafty crafter, please go back to Pinterest now.  This isn't the place for you.  But if you're like me, and you have more ambition than talent, and are willing to sacrifice perfection for the sake of fun, then read on!

This summer we went to the beach (as you all know).  While we were there we picked up a lot of sea shells.  To children, sea shells are like treasures, but in a lot of ways sea shells are actually garbage.  Humans going to the beach and picking up shells is like a fish going on vacation to a big city and picking up gum off the sidewalk as a souvenir.  It's just previously useful stuff that is almost colorful, but mostly grey and full of leftover organic material (aka germs). 

So my kids came home from the beach with a giant bag full of sea shells and the obvious question was what do we do with all this garbage? errr... I mean treasure?  The sensible mom in me (the one that loves Lysol and Clorox) said Sneak them into the garbage when the kids aren't looking!  But the fun mom in my head said Hang that trash on the wall and call it art!  Fun mom won.  She always does- unless she's sleeping, which happens occasionally.

A little background: I love pictures.  I love love love pictures.  The only thing better than going on vacation is looking at pictures and remembering going on vacation.  Photos give you all the good parts of the trip, without all the wining, car sickness, and expense of the real thing.  So I'm always looking for new and exciting ways to hang my family on the wall for my own enjoyment.

Every room in my house has a theme that dictates the kind of pictures I put in it.  Not a decorating theme like regular people have (jungle, Americana, southwestern, etc.).  It's more of a functional theme.  Our family room only has pictures of our family. Our kitchen only has pictures of people eating.  Our bathroom has pictures of toddlers bathing.  If aliens ever visited our house, they would know just how to behave because every room has a photo of the room's intended purpose.  It's like living inside an instruction manual. 

In keeping with our theme, my hallway is covered in pictures of places we've been, since a hallway takes you places.  Get it? It's a little nerdy, I know, but it's how I roll.  So whenever we travel someplace really scenic, I try to buy a nice poster to bring home and frame.  I can usually find something beautiful for $5 or less, and it's typically much nicer than what I can take with my own camera.  So while we were on the coast I bought a 10" x 13" print of Ruby Beach.  I also went to Walmart and had an 8" x 10" of our family printed and a handful of smaller photos as well.

     

So with pictures in hand, here's what we did:


Step 1- I found some old picture frames sitting in a junk pile in my garage.

Step 2- I found some old paint and brushes sitting in a junk pile in my garage too!  Then I painted the frames.  (I also used a black frame that was neutral enough that it didn't need painting at all, but these two were pretty bright, and needed subdued.)

Step 3- While the paint was drying, I plugged in my glue gun, then I sat all the shells out on the table so I could see my options. (Wow! This is a lot of steps, I'm getting tired. I'd better call in some help!)

Step 4- I called my kids in to help.



Step 5- I let the kids choose the shells and tell me where to place them. Then I glued them (the shells, not the kids) onto the frames.  (Warning: hot glue is hot!  Don't let your kids touch it)

That's it.

Isn't that awesome? And while we were at it, we also made a picture frame for Grandma since she took this trip with us as well.

So I know it's not going to win any prizes for style or creativity (and frankly, the crab shells still gross me out just a tad), but I love it. It looks perfect on my wall in between the pictures of Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon, just like I imagined it would.

For a total cost of less than $8 we got an hour of family craft fun, a Christmas present for Grandma, and a great memento for our wall.  Win, win, win.

Marcia