Sea Shells and a Shadow Box

Last summer I went on a girlfriends' trip to Marco Island, Florida. Three of us would go shelling early in the morning and walk the beach for miles. It was a great, relaxing time and some really good exercise.

One of my friends took a photo of me walking down the beach while looking for shells. I love the photo and I knew I wanted to do something special with it.

Once home, I took all the sand dollars I collected and decoupaged them to preserve them. They are extremely brittle and delicate and sadly, a few of them broke on the plane trip home.

I went to Ikea and purchased a shadow box for the shells. I love that we have a new Ikea a few blocks away. It's nice to be able to pop in there for just that one thing instead of stocking up like I used to do on our trips to the Ikea in Schaumburg, Illinois.

I cropped my photo to a size that would fit the 5 x 5-inch opening in the photo matting and printed the photo. Then I added the shells to the shadow box. I was surprised how few shells fit. That's OK though, I do love how it turned out.

I guess I will have to think up another crafty project for the rest of the shells.