Ever go to the beach and collect shells?
Ever bring home said shells in a giant ziploc bag?
Ever trip over a giant ziploc bag of oyster shells that has lived under your laundry room’s utility sink for over a year?
Ever smell a giant ziploc bag of year-old shells?
Don’t.
Promise me right now you won’t. It’s like whiffin’ a bowl of six month old tuna salad in the back of the fridge. Not that I would know. Nothing in my house smells bad. Even our diapers smell like my boys pooped butterflys.
So this post has a point. Let’s get to it. I found a bag of very stinky oyster shells from an old vacation in my laundry room (you gathered that already, huh?) and I was feeling crafty. So I made this…
Super simple craft. First you need to soak your shells. I soaked mine in white vinegar for a few hours to get rid of the funk. Then I gathered my supplies. I used some scrap plywood cut in a circle, a glue gun, some old brownish gray paint, and your shells.
First I painted my round piece of wood. You could probably get a precut piece at the craft store…I have so much stuff in our workroom that I just went down there and pulled some outta the scrap box. I did two coats of paint (I dried it between coats with a hairdryer because I’m dedicatedtowallart like that).
After it was dry, I laid out my shells. I tried to use my bigger shells for the first layer….then filled in the empty areas with smaller shells.
Then I just used my glue gun to attach them to the board. Really complicated huh?
Fill in the center and continue gluing. Eventually your shell art will look filled out and more like its blooming…
Pretty flowertastic, huh?!
The overall effect is really textural and fun. I think if I had access to a bunch of these I would make one giant oyster shell art wall hanging. It would be huge. Like three feet across. How pretty would that be over a bed?! Kinda like one of those gorgeous juju hats except with shells instead of feathers. So what have you been crafting lately? anything trippy? anything shelltastic?
p.s. I also write for Wayfair! And this week, I got to chat about The Golden Globes fashion…click here to read all about it!
Katie wth you are a GENIUS! Nate Berkus is so jealous right now! He wants this in his to-the-ceiling styled bookshelves. Designers everywhere are smacking their palms to their foreheads. Incredible, girl. I want it so bad. Also in a sparkly gold version and glossy white. I want it in all versions.
Ooooo! I have a bag of regular ol’ clam shells that I’ve been wondering what to do with! It’s one of those things that you can’t bring yourself to throw away!
I have always loved oyster shells, but I’ve never had any ideas for them. This is great! Thank you!
OMG! I love this! What a great idea!!! I have so been that person with bags of shells that just accumulate. I have actually stopped collecting them because I never found a good way to use them. I LOVE this way. Let the collecting begin again!
I LOVE it!
Now I want one too…..trouble is no oyster shells on the bach near me.
This is so pretty!! Awesome way to use those shells 🙂
Okay, I think your project is amazing. It looks like something you’d buy off Joss & Main or One Kings Lane. Very well done. I’d certainly hang it in my home!
It sort of looks like its own kind of sea creature. It’s fun and pretty!
I LOVE this! Now where on earth can I find oyster shells in Michigan…hmmm… Let the hunt begin!
Kim
Just as a reference – what is the diameter of your wooden circle. Hard to tell the scale from the pics. Love it tho’!
I’m posting tomorrow about my unsuccessful attempt to at making an oyster shell mirror for my basement “facelift”. I love what you’ve come up with. If my backup plans for the shells don’t cut it perhaps I’ll give this a try.
I love it! Is it heavy? I bet you could get a bunch of them from a restaurant that serves oysters.
Oh that looks really good! Love it!
Love this! Looks si beautiful 🙂
I love it! I wish I would have remembered to bring shells home from my honeymoon!
I LOVE THIS! ‘Nuff said.
New reader here.
Love this idea! Maybe the next time I go clamming I will save the shells. About how big is the finished piece?
My project for the the day will be painting my wedding TOMS!
All the best.
You sure make us women out here feel like we can have simplistic, modern and meaningful home decor and design no matter what our budget is. Love all your down-to-earth posts. Keep on keeping on, you are true inspiration to women and bloggers everywhere.
Wow This is beautiful!
Super cool!
I’m a huge fan of texture, natural things, and that slate grey/blue/off white combo that oyster shells give you. Great work! This would look amazing in a number of spaces in a home.
This is really pretty, Katie. And I’m loving how simple it was to make! My kind of project! Thanks for sharing.
Love it! What a clever way to use sea shells. I think we are all guilty of collecting shells and then never actually doing anything with them. I’m pinning this for later 🙂
Loooove this! Really makes me wish I had a bag of smelly oyster shells. That’s saying something.
Love.
I think crafts that combine memories with decor are the very best… and this was a great result from a smelly bag of clutter!
you are so amazingly creative. who would have thought of this??
fabulous, just fabulous
This is seriously so cool!
Um, this is incredible. Makes me seriously want to ask a local fish place to hold onto shells for me. SERIOUSLY. I’m not even a “beachy” kind of girl.
I recently hot-glued a pile of pennies to a copper-painted giant letter P (for our last name). Now, to find a home for it!
PS – how in the world do you get time to craft?! My daughter is just a couple of weeks older than Weston and she’s a total stage-five clinger – wants Mama to hold her. All. The. Time. No Daddy allowed.
You are hilarious and I love how that turned out. Plus you have an awesome story to remember every time anyone asks you about it. Win on all fronts!
There’s a site, Iloveshelling . com, that’s great for finding and cleaning shells. I love finding seashells but I’m in a landlocked state and don’t get to a beach often. This looks great!
This is so unexpected and pretty! Do you have any ideas for sea glass?
THAT is really neat! I don’t have a lot of oyster shells but lots of others. May try to do something similar.
I’m officially jealous! Wish I had a few oyster shells lying around. I would totally make this.
Hi Katie!
You are so stinking crafty! And I love how simple it is! Gorgeous!
…..And just in case we didn’t believe you that this blog is about “nothing and everything” you follow a boob job tutorial with a shell craft! Lol!
PS Certain people who feel disappointed at a boob job Photoshop tutorial should probably take life a little less seriously. Just sayin. 🙂
This is such a great idea! I love the texture. Nicely done!
What a rockin’ little piece! Great way to mix a family vacay memory and some art!
Ohhh. I really like that. I would buy a cheap round mirror and make one of those round frames but out of those shells.
What a great idea!
Ahh, love love love this! I need this in my life.
This is making me look at my random collections of who knows what in a whole new light! Such a good idea and supa fab!
Wow, neat, you don’t happen to have any big fake pearls laying around that you could use in the center. And for some reason, I’d be so tempted to spray paint this in light to dark gold or pinks. Of course, whats her name would paint it white, you know her, the “other” dark haired genius beauty on that “other” site I have to read everyday too…..you guys take up too much of my time, and I love every minute of it!!!
That is really an awesome piece! And a great way to remember a special vacation!
OOOhhh make a frame! Use the glass like tiles! It would look amazing! Anyone else with an idea?
xo – kb
I do all my crafting with Weston strapped onto me or in my lap. I’m sure when he gets more grabby, I’ll have to stop that technique though.
xo – kb
It’s about a foot across…give or take an inch.
xo – kb
The finished thing probably weighs about the same as a half of a gallon of milk.
xo – kb
It’s probably about eight inches across. Hope this helps!
xo – kb
Love this! So simple but looks like a million bucks
What a great idea Katie! This looks awesome!
I live on the beach and always pass right over the oyster shells because I always thought they were so dull and ugly, but this art piece is beautiful. I guess there’s beauty (and strength) in numbers. With so many grouped together and with so many different color variations, it takes on an almost metallic appearance.
Did you attach any mounting hardware to the back? Also, I often wonder about the strength of hot glue. Has it held up since you completed this project? Thanks, Katie!
Love this. I told my husband after he ate some oyster shells once that it’d be fun to do something with all of them. He told me I was crazy. I thought the textures and mainly the color would look great somewhere in a house. And now I know I’m right because this is great! But, I have to know… where did you get that hippo?!?! My husband is obsessed with hippos and now my daughter loves them too. My brother and his girlfriend had even thrown us a hippo shower! We have a giant hippo from Fantasia in my daughter’s room, we have a wooden hippo from my grandmother, and every type of hippo child’s book imaginable, plus tons of hippo toys. I always look for unique ones and have found teeny tiny hippos made from stone to bigger ones… and now I want the one you have! I guess we like hippos as much as Sherry and white ceramic animals.
Very pretty!
It reminds me a bit of when I volunteered at the New England Aquarium for a few years and they had a trash mural. It was part of the Living Links travelling exhibit. I loved walking past it and seeing the blend of education/awareness with art.
We have treasure boxes that we make from the simple wood boxes at craft stores to hold our “treasures.” You could do something similarly and decorate the top or sides with the sea glass.
Depending on what you have and what your living space looks like, you might add them to a lamp or light switch cover.
You could also make a mosaic out of them or make them into initials and frame the initials.
Happy creating!
So this has nothing to do with your fabulous art, but when in the world are you going to finish posting your Weston birth story??? The suspense is killing me! I check back every day hoping for a new post…OK, let’s be real…multiple times a day. I promise I’m not a stalker! Just a girl who loves a good birth story. 🙂 Don’t leave us hanging, Katie!
i am normally not a decorative shell lover, but this is really pretty!
Wowza so pretty!
I love this!!!! I think I need to get some oyster shells the next time I’m back home!!!!
I’ll have to give that a shot maybe. Small HATES the carrier until she falls asleep in it. 🙂 I’ve got some crafts I need to get done…
Great idea for decoration. It can also work for making a picture frame with shelves.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea! I don’t even think I would care if it stinks it has so much awesome texture and shine!
This made me laugh. The restaurant I worked at this summer had a sister restaurant across the pier from us that was an oyster place. We collected all the oyster shells (we got yelled at for putting them through the dishwasher… woops) and then we would write little messages in them and give them to our customers. (Think “I got shucked in Boothbay Harbor, ME”, “No pearl here, better luck next time…” etc.) But after we got yelled at for sending them through the dishwasher we ended up collecting them in buckets outside the restaurant so we didn’t have to smell them (there were probably at least 200 of them.) Well they were sitting outside and one day I was washing the windows and looked out and saw this woman grab her husband by the arm. She pointed to the bucket, then looked around to make sure no one was watching (obviously she didn’t look very hard as I watched her the whole time) then she and her husband starting stuffing them in her purse, a grocery bag, in her pants pockets- anywhere she could fit them! Then they looked around and went scampering up the hill (dropping shells behind them ala Hansel and Gretel they were so loaded down). I am not sure why they didn’t just ask if they could have some- we would have said yes- but we were all laughing at how bad they must have smelled walking around town with rotting oyster shells. I hope she made something fun with them after all that trouble!
Hilarious! I guess her punishment for stealing is the oyster stink 🙂
xo – kb
so I actually do have a box of shells from the beach! Thanks for this idea, I wouldn’t have known to soak them in vinegar
So funny! Growing up on the beach, we always had an abundance of shells – and we still have tons of oyster shells here in California…. now if I could only find my glue gun.
does anyone sell this.
Approximately how many shells did u use for this size
Oh shoot…I’d have to count them in the photo! ha!
xo – kb
This is a very unique way of creating with oyster shells. Mine aren’t the blue shade but it will still be pretty. Thanks for sharing!
I’m doing this now! I shined up all the shells with vitamin e oil, and I’m actually going to lay the shells facing down rather than facing up. There are all kinds of cool purples and greens in the shells!
Wahoo! I’d love to see a pic!
xo – kb