crafting with seashells, need advice

[tcufrog]

We recently went to cape Cod for family vacation where we stayed on a place right on the beach. I was delighted to discover that the beach was an awesome place for collecting seashells. On all of my previous beach vacations I had been on I had been lucky to collect one shell and here I was able to collect tons of small shells.

I brought them home with the hope of making a travel keepsake with them. I'd like to either cover a plain wooden frame with them and frame a photo from the trip or cover the lid of a wooden keepsake box with them but I'm not sure how to securely affix them. I've seen them in the stores and online so I know it's possible. Does anyone have suggestions for doing so?

Thanks.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Hot glue

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We recently went to cape Cod for family vacation where we stayed on a place right on the beach. I was delighted to discover that the beach was an awesome place for collecting seashells. On all of my previous beach vacations I had been on I had been lucky to collect one shell and here I was able to collect tons of small shells.

I brought them home with the hope of making a travel keepsake with them. I'd like to either cover a plain wooden frame with them and frame a photo from the trip or cover the lid of a wooden keepsake box with them but I'm not sure how to securely affix them. I've seen them in the stores and online so I know it's possible. Does anyone have suggestions for doing so?

Thanks.

Just a cautionary note - be sure to clean those shells well. Otherwise you'll be tossing a pretty smelly trinket later.

 

[diznygirl]

I did a frame and used hot glue.

 

[SMD]

Just a cautionary note - be sure to clean those shells well. Otherwise you'll be tossing a pretty smelly trinket later.

Yes. Soak them in water and vinegar or even water and bleach. You might want to do a mix of shells you collected and craft shells which have already been cleaned and preserved.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Instead of hot glue, I recommend Aileen's Tacky Glue, found in craft stores. It holds better than hot glue. I bought large wooden letters (my boys' initials) and painted them, then glued the shells on. As a final touch, I covered them with Mod Podge and carefully blew on a small amount of glitter. But, if you go on Pinterest, I'm sure you could come up with a gazillion crafts using seashells.

 

[desamnik]

E6000. dries clear, stronger than hot glue!

 

[tcufrog]

Will washing them in bleach water change their color? I like the color they are now. I've never heard of E6000. Where would I buy it?

 

[nicolita3]

Will washing them in bleach water change their color? I like the color they are now. I've never heard of E6000. Where would I buy it?

They sell e6000 at any craft store maybe even walmart, it is so much better than hot glue.

 

[monorailsilver]

Instead of hot glue, I recommend Aileen's Tacky Glue, found in craft stores. It holds better than hot glue. I bought large wooden letters (my boys' initials) and painted them, then glued the shells on. As a final touch, I covered them with Mod Podge and carefully blew on a small amount of glitter. But, if you go on Pinterest, I'm sure you could come up with a gazillion crafts using seashells.

My kids used Aileen's white glue and it worked. They did something similar-their first letter but used sharks teeth...yes we have that many!!!

Will washing them in bleach water change their color? I like the color they are now. I've never heard of E6000. Where would I buy it?

A little if any. but I'd take taking the change of color over the stench! I put our sand dollars in bleach water and I was amazed at how white they turned out vs the gray they started off as.

 

[tcufrog]

I'm not planning to add glitter. Would putting a thin layer of Mod Podge on it though help protect it?

 

[Imzadi]

E6000. dries clear, stronger than hot glue!

They sell e6000 at any craft store maybe even walmart, it is so much better than hot glue.

DITTO on E6000. This is what professional jewelers use to attach stones to settings without prongs, and professional crafters who sell their works use to permanently attach anything else together. There are very few materials that E6000 does not attach together.

Hot glue is an absolute joke, in my opinion. It is what gives "crafters" a bad name as the items fall apart within days to months of making something. "My mom is into 'crafting'," said as the child is picking up dropped shells off the floor so that their friend does not step on the shells. "Yeah, my mom does that too, and all the stuff falls apart." Hot glue is for instantaneous satisfaction, not PERMANENCY. Projects can be glued together and completed in 2 hours -- never mind they will fall apart and continue to fall apart in the next few week to months until the project ends up in the trash. At least a non-crafter completed a project and can be proud for a couple weeks. That seems the goal of "hot glue crafts," from what I can tell.

Hot glue is a non-sticky stick in it's usual cold form. One heats it and AS IT IS HOT is sticky. If one doesn't embed the attachment securely INTO the hot glue and have the glue come up and AROUND like prongs or a bezel to hold the item into place, once the glue is cold again, it becomes NON-STICKY again, meaning nothing else about the glue holds the item into place. Also, if one places the item in a hot place, like a really sunny window, or direct sunlight, the glue may become warm again, where the prongs/bezels holding the items into place melt and the attachments fall off. And since most hot glues remain a little flexible, if one knocks into an attachment, one may knock it off.

If (general) you are going to the effort to take a couple hours to assemble and glue a craft, then make the effort to buy the right adhesive to make it PERMANENT. I agree with using E6000 and a toothpick to dot on the E6000 to the backs of the shells, so you don't smear it all over your hands. Make sure your area is ventilated. (Keep a window open. ) It will take about 24 hours to cure, instead of a quick 2 hours with hot glue. Yet your frame or box cover will be permanent. The shells, themselves are still fragile. But where they've been glued on, will be strong & permanent.

(Can you tell I have an intense loathing and contempt for hot glue? )

 

[Imzadi]

I'm not planning to add glitter. Would putting a thin layer of Mod Podge on it though help protect it?

Maybe just give it a quick misting, a couple times afterward (outdoors,) once the adhesive is cured, with clear GLOSS Krylon spray. (It is usually locked up on the craft department or the automotive/hardware department. You have to ask a clerk to get it out of the locked display for you. Kids steal it, to sniff to get high, so, by law, it has to be locked up at the stores.)

 

[scrhsa]

DITTO on E6000. This is what professional jewelers use to attach stones to settings without prongs, and professional crafters who sell their works use to permanently attach anything else together. There are very few materials that E6000 does not attach together.

Hot glue is an absolute joke, in my opinion. It is what gives "crafters" a bad name as the items fall apart within days to months of making something. "My mom is into 'crafting'," said as the child is picking up dropped shells off the floor so that their friend does not step on the shells. "Yeah, my mom does that too, and all the stuff falls apart." Hot glue is for instantaneous satisfaction, not PERMANENCY. Projects can be glued together and completed in 2 hours -- never mind they will fall apart and continue to fall apart in the next few week to months until the project ends up in the trash. At least a non-crafter completed a project and can be proud for a couple weeks. That seems the goal of "hot glue crafts," from what I can tell.

Hot glue is a non-sticky stick in it's usual cold form. One heats it and AS IT IS HOT is sticky. If one doesn't embed the attachment securely INTO the hot glue and have the glue come up and AROUND like prongs or a bezel to hold the item into place, once the glue is cold again, it becomes NON-STICKY again, meaning nothing else about the glue holds the item into place. Also, if one places the item in a hot place, like a really sunny window, or direct sunlight, the glue may become warm again, where the prongs/bezels holding the items into place melt and the attachments fall off. And since most hot glues remain a little flexible, if one knocks into an attachment, one may knock it off.

If (general) you are going to the effort to take a couple hours to assemble and glue a craft, then make the effort to buy the right adhesive to make it PERMANENT. I agree with using E6000 and a toothpick to dot on the E6000 to the backs of the shells, so you don't smear it all over your hands. Make sure your area is ventilated. (Keep a window open. ) It will take about 24 hours to cure, instead of a quick 2 hours with hot glue. Yet your frame or box cover will be permanent. The shells, themselves are still fragile. But where they've been glued on, will be strong & permanent.

(Can you tell I have an intense loathing and contempt for hot glue? )

Also, trying to hot glue little shells is not fun...you will burn your fingers!! Whether you put the glue on the shell or the frame/box you'll hit the sun hot hot glue and burn the you know what out of your finger !!!! I have a scar to prove it )

 

[Imzadi]

Also, trying to hot glue little shells is not fun...you will burn your fingers!! Whether you put the glue on the shell or the frame/box you'll hit the sun hot hot glue and burn the you know what out of your finger !!!! I have a scar to prove it )

Yes!!! And the low melt glue & guns are a joke. The glue doesn't get hot enough to even drip out of the nozzle. One has to use a new glue stick to push the somewhat melted glue out in a glop onto the surface. And since it is so low melt, it cools before one even gets to stick something into it. What one ends up doing is sticking the tip of the hot glue gun into the glop to try to heat it enough to push the attachment into it. Then when one pulls the nozzle up, long strings of COLD hot glue are stuck to the tip creating spider web like strings all over the place that have to be snipped off. The project ends up looking totally amateurish.


Does any self-respecting MALE use hot glue? Or is this just something targeted to women and their "silly crafts?" Men may own one, but it's probably at the bottom of their junk drawer, in case they need to assemble something quickly & non-permanently together. I never see them pull out one on This Old House, or home improvement, or men's woodworking shows & the like. They use wood glue & clamps or wood glue & nails for immediate & long-lasting hold. For non-wood items, they use E6000, Gorilla Glue, (which recently came out with a clear adhesive. An alternative adhesive I'd recommend. ) JB Weld, 2-part epoxies, or adhesives that go in caulking guns like Liquid Nails or silicone adhesives. Those also come in squeeze tubes now.

The times on home improvement/decorating shows when they pull out a hot glue gun, it's usually to give the female home owner a craft project to do or for a quick project that needs to be done by the reveal. And the show only cares that the project holds together long enough until the cameras go off. They don't care about any permanency. Hot glue has as much permanency as the adhesive on the backs of Post-It notes.

If one wants to make non-permanent items, like a wreath with evergreen branches glued into to a Styrofoam wreath, lasting only till after New Year's, if it's on a wall where no one will touch or knock into it, have at it! It has it's non-permanent place, like kid's white school glue.

But, hot glue is not MARKETED as such. Generally, crafters aren't taught about it's extreme limitation. My contempt for it is because there is a whole generation of women who STILL believe they aren't "crafty" because they were sold the "hot glue gun crafts" in which they A) burnt their fingers - as a PP said. B) their project is all gloppy and/or stringy and looking totally amateurish. C) their project, after all that work, fell apart. D) their family & friends who were the recipients of the crafts which fell apart also don't think that person has any craft ability. E) And if their normally, reasonably intelligent mother/daughter/sister/friend can't make a craft that stays together, they probably can't either.

Yet it was never THEM. It was the HOT GLUE they were told to use.