Unconventional Crafts Involving Sea Shells
Updated on August 12, 2016
Sea shells are a cheerful thing to craft with, wear, and decorate with any time of year, but there’s something extra enjoyable about making a good DIY project with sea shells in the summer time. Perhaps it’s because you know you might go to the seaside soon. Maybe it just makes the inside of your home feel as bright as the sun shining outside. Whatever it is, now is definitely the time for sea shell crafts.
Here are 15 fun, fantastic DIY projects made with sea shells (or at least with sea shells in mind)!
1. DIY seashell necklace
Creative Savings shows you how to make a simple, subtle, and super sweet sea shell necklace in just a few easy steps. All you need is a sea shell, a fine chain that hangs at a length you like, a pinching jewelry ring, and perhaps another seaside themed charm, if you’d like. We absolutely love the way this little silver star fish contrast with an actual little delicate sea shell from the beach.
2. Dangling seashell earrings
Katrin Shine suggests finding a series of clean, white matching sea shells, cleaning them off carefully, and turning them into tiered earrings! Jewelry links are fairly easy to pierce through the thin base of a small shell, but make the hole slowly so that the shells don’t crack. Attach as many little dangling shells to each earring as you please!
3. DIY mermaid earrings
Unfortunately, you aren’t very likely to find natural rainbow sea shells like these ones on any beaches close to your home, so Moms and Crafters has figured out how to make them for you. Colour a matching pair of shells, use glue to attach straight earrings posts to the back, and voila! Jewelry fit for a real life mermaid.
4. Painted seashell bobby pins
Polka Dot Chair suggests painting small to medium sized sea shells and then gluing them carefully to bobby pins in order to make simple push-in hair accessories. When we say “painted”, however, we really mean that they’ve ever so lightly buffed a thin coat of light paint over the ridges of the shell so that there’s just a hint of aqua, making it look like the shell was naturally that ethereal looking. We adore the effect!
5. Seashell flower necklace
Have you ever turned a pile of sea shells over on the beach and noticed that the underside of each one is pink? If you collect a handful of these, you’ll have most of what you need to make this gorgeous sea shell “flower” pendant by Debi’s Design Diary! You could do this with shells that have white undersides too, but the pink sure is eye catching.
6. Ombre glittered seashell tree ornaments
Martha Stewart shows you how to make a series of dangling tree ornaments for any greenery you might have in your hom any time of year. These gorgeously glittered ombre shells will hang in in the tree in your front yard like Christmas ornaments hang in a Christmas tree, only they’re a bright, fun celebration of summer instead.
7. Seashell filled Christmas ornaments
Would you like to make sure that sea shells and summer time are incorporated into your actual Christmas tree decor too? Visit your local craft or dollar store and find empty glass Christmas bulbs, then fill them with the smallest sea shells you found on the beach that summer, just like Busy Kids, Happy Mom. That one ornament will hearken back to warmer days while you enjoy crisp mornings and hot cocoa.
8. Framed shell art by colour and size
Sand and Sisal as an absolutely gorgeous DIY wall art idea for people who have been gathering sea shells every summer for years and have an extensive collection. Start by sorting your shells by size so that you can create frames that decrease shell size from bottom to top. Next, sort the shells by colour. If there aren’t enough consistent colours to make frames full of shells that match, consider painting them whatever colour you like!
9. Seashell seahorse art
Have you every tried creating a 3D collage or doing mosaic art? That’s essentially what this gorgeous sea shell seahorse project by Domestically Speaking is like, but you’re fitting shells of different, colours, shapes, and sizes together within the overall shape of a sea horse. This one can be a little tricky and takes some patience, but the gorgeous final outcome is worth it!
10. Seashell shadow box
If you like the idea of shells arranged in frames but you’d rather include shells of bigger shapes and sizes than will fit in a regular frame, try making a shall shadow box instead, just like this one by Bower Power.
11. DIY seashell ampersand
Have you every seen those flat wooden letters and shapes that are often sold at dollar and craft stores? Those make a great base for some sea shell mosaic crafts! Fit the shells together all across the surface until you have a beautiful collage of seaside texture and colour. If you have wood working skills, make your own wooden base shaped however you want! Check out how this ampersand was done on A Night Owl.
12. Jute or crafting twig wrapped shell candle holder
Between Naps on the Porch reminds you how whimsically rustic a combination of either jute string or pliable crafting twigs and sea shells can look when crafted in the same place. We love the way this candle holder has been wrapped and then accented with pretty teal shells so that the light through the glass throws their shape against the walls when you light the candle.
13. Sand dipped seashell pillar candles
Usually the sand is the part of the beach that you don’t want to take home with you, but The V Spot has found a pretty exception to that rule! These tall, sand dipped candles look like they grew right out of the rocks on the wharf, especially if you surround them with a scattering of real shells across the tabletop.
14. Seashell paper clips
Thinking Closet understands that sometimes the little things in life need jazzy up too. Why hand your coworker a stack of dry statistical papers fastened together with a boring old paper clip when you could brighten their day just a little by holding the information together with a pretty little sea shell? The office will probably thank you.
15. DIY seashell candles
The V Spot guides you through the process of making a DIY candle and wick within a large, hollowed sea shell so that you can think about the seaside any time you want just by lighting the candle and watching the patterns and colours on the shells glow.
Do you know someone who absolutely adores the beach or the seaside when they’re not there? Share this post with them so they can make themselves a lovely reminder of their favourite place!