What can I do with sea shells that isn't tacky?

https://www.pinterest.com/devined/shell-crafts/

I love sea shells!

The classiest sea shell project that I've seen is turning them into candles: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/craft/candles/beautiful-gold-candles-made-using-spray-paint-and-sea-shells-11463637 I love it http://www.hometalk.com/diy/decorate/rooms/seashell-beeswax-tea-lights-691850

Have fun! Share when you finish!!

Check out or join the Facebook group seashells for fun. Beautiful things are made out of seashells

(Personally, I rather appreciate a medium to large, clean, clear lamp base half filled with a variety of unbroken nautical treasures from the sea, possibly an smallish anchor, surfboard, ocean-going boat/ship, sea gulls....anything relative to the ocean and beach.

How about applyingthem to a frame of a photo of the place you picked them up from?

A friend used them to make wind chimes. She used some sea glass as well. Very beachy and fun:)

Use a hot glue gun and make stick figures out of them, ie dogs or humans or birds in different poses. Saw a beautiful craft viking boat using a gourd as the hull and shell shields, cabin etc too. You could make knights as well.

Glue them around your bathroom mirror

I frequently display seashells and clam shells in apothecary jars when I'm staging homes I sell. I posted about it on my blog:

https://bachelorettepadflip.com/2014/06/05/staging-on-a-budget/

I have a friend who used to spend many hours searching for shells at the beach near his apartment. He cleaned them very well, preserved them with clear nail polish, and actually glued them in interesting patterns on a plain bookshelf he had. It was very cool. Obviously, he only used the perfectly in tact ones. He also glued them along the window sill. It looked great!

I lined my garden with them. They look pretty and enhance the pathways ☺️

I took a clear glass dish, mine is round and about 4" deep, I poured some kosher salt/ sea salt from the dollar store, about 1" from the top, looks like sand 👣 put my sea shells in, put one fan shaped one over a led votive. Voila! Night light, leds also from the dollar store , looks nice unlit too, mine is in my guest bathroom.

I have them in shadow box frames on cloth back ground. I put a nice label under them and if there are extra of the same kind I laid them on the bottom of the frame inside the glass. They look great on the wall in a hall or a bathroom.

Anyone have any picture to show off the work

My shell project below

I glued a few of them to a small lampshade in the guest room and also glued some on a waste basket in their bathroom. Very Florida!

Some shells are thinner in density than others, delicate ones can be used as a lighting item with a low voltage nite lite bulb or fairy lite string ten to fifteen lightes.

Glue to a picture frame or mirror frame.

They have been used, with epoxy, as door/drawer handles. I have a few in my tiki bar area. I also took a couple of large pickle jars, purchased a "lamp light kit" from a home improvement store. Then SLOWLY, carefully (with water as a coolant) drilled (with a cheap glass drill bit same store) a hole at the bottom of the jar for the cord to go through. Then drilled a hole in the center top of the lid just big enough to fit the lamp hardware pipe through and tightened all the nuts. Ran the cable down through and out of the jar.

Filled the jar with sea shells and put my favorites to the outside glass for display Sort of like making a terrarium build on your way out while keeping the cord in the center to not be seen.

I found all of these ideas either in books or online. I'm sure they are all online by now. This a few years ago.

Actually cord went in through bottom up to top....

I have decorated clearance aisle (after season) wreaths by gluing shells all around and then adding starfish, etc. I also have a garland made of shells but you need a decent strength glue and a thick-ish cord to adhere them to.

When I was a little girl in the '50's my mother used a variety of shells to transform a plain wicker purse. She used real sand, and whatever occurred to her at the time. The first time she was out shopping with it, another shopper bought it from her. She started buying plain wicker purses and she would spray paint the purse in whatever color her friends or just strangers asked for. Then she would glue on the shells. Once she sprinkled leftover glitter on the top before the glue dried. WOW!

My daughter made a heart in a shadow box with shells she found on the west coast and gave it to a friend who went with her. It was beautiful and will always be a memory she will have.

I have mine in varying sized apothecary jars in our master bath around the jet tub. Nothing tackier than the hanging shell monstrousities from the 60-70's.

If you have small shells, you could go to a big box home store or craft store for clear plastic towel bars, fill them with the small shells to make fun towel bars. If your shells are large, amazon.com has solar fairy lights that you could tuck up inside the shells to create garden or patio lights. I have several strings of the copper wire fairy lights-they are durable, easy to work with, and some have different flash patterns. I am impressed that mine are bright and have survived a blizzard. Good luck with your project!

We used some of ours to make a wind chime which we also use in a coastal styled bedroom. Would look great in a bathroom, or in a nursery as well. Here's a tutorial with video on how to make it: https://www.sustainmycrafthabit.com/blog/2017/2/15/how-to-make-a-diy-coastal-seashell-wind-chime

I've seen ceramic horse heads covered in different types of shells that looked amazing. They were positioned in a way that ran with the natural contour of the features and mane as well as the shapes of the shells. Oyster shells were used on the face. Spiral shells made up the mane. It looked incredible.

Make them into a fan pull.

Attach them to a pre-made wind chime.

Put'm inside a frame, just don't use the glass front.

Attach'm to a basket as a room decoration.

I'm in the middle of making sea shell decor to go in my living room. I'm using thrift store shadow boxes. I'm painting 3 of the insides a sky blue & with spray adhesive, I'm putting craft sand on the inside bottom then I'll glue down a shell or 3.

I put mone in a glass jar on a bathroom shelf. Large ones I put in my garden if front of a plant so it lifts the leaves off the ground, but fall onto the shelf, I keep the plant trimmed so you see the shell. I am also going to make some concrete stepping stones with shells, marbles etc etc. Place in bottom of concrete circle when dry flip over to see the beauty.

i also painted and cut wide baseboard to go around the mirror and glued on shells.

so many ideas really. In a bowl with sand on the bottom, pillar candle in the middle surrounded by sea shells on a table beside your outdoor patio furniture.

if you are into jewellery making , you can clean the not to large ones. drill a hole for a cord or short chain to pass through. i put a pearl on the end of the chain so it lays in the shell. then i add a circle with glue so neck cord or chain will pass through. makes great flea market jewellery and the locals and visitors to our local camp sites will purchase them.I have done small pieces of drift wood and sea birds that i found in dollar store along with small shells and it makes a novelty sovenier for visitors.

I made a wreath with sea shells-cardboard circle with hole, glue on sea shells and fill in empty spaces with Spanish moss!

You can take old boxes and glue shells to them. Taking different sizes and grouping them together is very pretty on vanity, dresser top or coffee table. Also take a dollar store mirror and glue them around the frame completely covering it. I've seen these sell in Key West for hundreds of dollars.

hey would look nice in a transparent glass lamp.