July 6, 2012

DIY beach souvenirs



My family and I just got home from the most amazing beach vacation.  We were able to spend about 5 weeks in Florida, and made a quick stop to visit family in WV on the way.  We were gone for nearly 6 weeks.  Now that we are home I am sorting through all of the goodies we brought back with us.  My boys and I collected a ton of cool sea shells on the trip and I promised to help them make unique souvenirs when we got home.  So, today we made two "beach in a bottle" projects, one for each of the boys. 



We started with some ribbon, seashells, sand, hot glue, and some clear plastic bottles from the sand art section of hobby lobby.  I opted to buy sand for this as in the past I have found sand off the beach to be very difficult to clean and work with. 



I let the boys choose their own shells to place in the jars and away we went.  First adding Sand then the shells. 







I then used my Gypsy and Gypsy Font to create the wording for the outside of the bottles.  I used brown vinyl for the lettering.





It is quite small, but I think the Expression does a great job cutting tiny vinyl letters!



A jump ring was added to the back side of the seashells for the outside using E6000 glue. 



Ribbon was added to the top of the bottles using hot glue, vinyl lettering applied, and seashells added.  This was a simple yet fun project that my boys were able to help with!  I think this will be a great way for them to remember this trip for years to come! 

8 comments:

  1. Wow! That is a long vacation. My daughter and I just went to Flagler Beach today, but we didn't collect any shells...to busy watching the dolphins. Your shells pieces are wonderful keepsakes.

    Stay Creative,
    Georgiana
    Carson's Creations

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    1. Thsnk you for your kind words. Watching the dolphins is always a favorite activity for my family. I just love FL!

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  2. Love that project and thanks for the tip on the sand! Ah....5 weeks at the beach....sounds like heaven! Sounds like a GREAT summer!!!!

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    1. It was heaven, I would have stayed forever, if I didn't have to get back for school.

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  3. These are such fun. Love the shell with the ring on the outside. Glad you enjoyed your time away and glad you are back in your craft room

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    1. Thanks Hun! It was a great trip! I have a ton more sea shells, so I need to come up with some more projects, you may see that ring trick again soon!

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  4. So fun - it looks/sounds like you had an amazing vacation. What a great job you did to preserve the memories.

    FYI I saw these cute little shell creatures the other day in Womens World Magazine page 40 from the July 23 2012 date.

    They took 2 shells same approx size. Then painted them different colors and glued them together either w/ the mouth open or shut. Add some googlie eyes w/ glue. Then they also added a few little "legs" to some of them just another flater shell. Pretty cute.

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  5. Great idea! I;m always torn with what to do with all of the sea shells we collect.

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