I like to collect things when we go on vacation. The two things I like to collect are spoons and Christmas ornaments. I love thinking about all the fun trips we’ve been on when putting up the tree. This past year we had our first real beach vacation at North Myrtle Beach. I decided that instead of hunting for a Christmas ornament among all the souvenir stores I would use the seashells we collected on the beach to make our own. I came up with these three simple ways to display them on our Christmas tree.
When your working with shells the first thing you want to do after their cleaned is spray them with a clear coat. This makes them have a shiny wet look and allows the colors of the shells to stand out more.
The first was very simple and easy to do, especially if you have kids who want to help. I purchased some sand and plastic craft bulb ornaments that split in half from Michael’s. You also need a small piece of ribbon that will fit through the hole of the ornament and a paint marker or dark sharpie. First I wrote on one half of the ornament Myrtle Beach 2018 wit a red sharpie and let that dry. Then I filled one half of the ornament with sand and set 5 pretty small and medium sized shells in the sand. I popped the other half on and tied a ribbon through the hole. That simple and a great craft to make with your kids.
Next I had some really pretty long shells that looked like they used to be tiny conch shaped shells, most were broken. For this you will need jewelry wire, jewelry loop pliers and wire cutters. I took about 10 inches of jewelry wire and wrapped the wire around the conch shaped shell leaving a tail about 2 to 3 inches at the top. When the wire was wrapped from top to bottom around the shell I made a loop at the bottom of the shell with the wide part of the jewelry loop pliers and then another loop at the top of the shell. I secured both loops with a twist. Next I took a medium shell and wrapped about 5 inches of wire around that making another loop at the top but i did not close the loop. I attached the top of the second shell’s loop to the conch’s bottom loop and then secured both loops closed. I made three of these total and in one of them I wrote the year 2018 on the inside of the lower shell. I think they look very pretty hanging on the tree.
The third set of ornaments I made were the most fun. What you need to make these is a a white wooden or white ceramic ornament, they have them at Michaels. Some pre-set thin mixed Mortar which you can find at any hardware store. A Popsicle stick or plastic knife and an assortment of small seashells. I love making crafts with pre-set thin mixed mortar they come out so beautiful. You can check out another craft I made with it in my blog How To Make Memories Out of Seashells.
This craft is so much fun to make, First you get a good amount of mortar on your Popsicle stick or plastic knife and just like your spreading peanut butter spread the mortar on your white ornament in sections. Once you’ve spread a section simply press the small seashells into the mortar and let dry. The mortar usually dries in about 2 hours. You can lay your seashells out ahead of time or randomly place them. Make sure you do this project in a well ventilated area as the mortar does smell. Kids love to make these kind of crafts just make sure you protect clothing and wash hands afterwards.
Want to see a step by step tutorial of these crafts? Check out my YouTube video. Part 2 Christmas Traditions at 2BecomeBrave.
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