Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Guess who's in the mood to be crafty! Wait for it...wait for it... THIS GIRL! My crafty mojo seems to come and go these days based on how crazybusy my life is. I've had this little project in mind since we went to the beach last month. I got my inspiration from YHL (which by the way happens to be my # 1 obsession blog right now). They did this cute shadow box with keys from their past apartments and houses. (Follow the link to see their post about the keys. And go ahead and do yourself a favor and add them to your must read list. You don't have to thank me later.)

I thought it was such a cute idea but didn't know if it would be just right for us.

Yes, we've moved a lot (3 times in 2 years of marriage), but somehow in all the chaos we didn't end up with any spare keys. My problem-solver husband quickly said 'Ashley you can just get any key. Nobody will know that it's not really the key to that house.' To which I promptly responded 'But I'll know and my OCD will not let me forget it!' So it was a no-go on the keys for us.

BUT, cue the happy music... While we were at the beach last month, I picked up a cute little off-white sea shell and a project was born.

The Plan:

=> Get a shadow box on the cheap. They are included in the 50% off frame sale at Hobby Lobby so I know they'll be on sale soon.

=> For the background, I scored an awesome deal on a book of scrapbook paper in different shades of metallic blue from Marshall's while we were on our way back from the beach. It was around $4.00.

=> Figure out a way to hang the shell in the box. I've thought about a thumbtack since it's not so long, but I'm worried about hanging the shell. Since I know I can change out the color of the paper over the years, I may just hot blue it in place???

=> Find the perfect spot in the house to hang said Sea Shell Shadow Box. (Say that 5 times fast) saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox saidseashellshadowbox. Yes I did just do that. But I know you read it, so HA.

=> Regain focus on this post

=> Write Folly 2011 on Mr. Shell. This part is done. Here's how that went down...

It appears that writing on a sea shell isn't exactly elementary my dear Watson. It's actually pretty intense. I thought I could just scribble it out with my handy dandy sharpie and call it a day, but no dice. Luckily, I started with a pencil to trace out where I wanted everything, so I was able to adjust when I ran into the sharpie snag.

  

I ended up using the sharpie on the whole phrase, but then I went back with the pencil and filled in all the little cracks to make it as solid as possible. I'm probably going to go over it again with a really thin sharpie just to make it more bold and solid.

My vision for this is that in 12 years we'll have a cute little shadow box with 12 cute little shells that spell out the beach we visited and the year. It's fun, it's simple, and it's really personal. Love it.

To be continued...