Get The Technique
1 Ocean specimens.
2 I freaked out when I found the letter A on the beach. A is for Ashley, perfect!
3 I arranged the sea glass to fade from pale green to white.
4 Unfortunately, not all the findings on the beach are natural. Fragments of plastic and metal make up for a lot of the colorful pieces that are in this collection.
5 a beach on Elbow Cay.
What do you do with all the things you collect on the beach?
I had a pile of sea shore scores that were sitting in a bin, for over 2 years, that I finally sat down to organize. All the odds and ends, my boyfriend Ashley and I collected from the beaches of Elbow Cay in the Bahamas—sea glass, drift wood, shells, broken pieces of coral, tiles, plastic bits, metal fragments, sand and seaweed—that had surfed the ocean waves and wound up on the shores of this tiny island in the Abacos. Squatting, head down, we rummaged through sand, heaps of seaweed and ocean fleas, under and in between rock, we battled waves and caked on layers of sun block to hoard all our finds in a closet for years-for what?
1 finding drying after being rinsed in fresh water.
2 2 years later, all the findings organized.
3 collecting on the beach.
After sorting everything and picking out my favorites, I spent an afternoon lining the pieces up by their color or material, fitting everything together like a puzzle. I used a glass-covered specimen case so they could be displayed. I covered the inside of the case with a nice piece of pale blue linen to resemble the color of the Bahama water. Using Steam-a-Seam, a double faced fusible interfacing, I adhered the fabric inside the case, so that it was completely secure for mounting all my finds to. I used a multi-purpose cement, 527 glue, to secure my collection in place.
After creating, not only a piece of art, but a 3D scrapbook page of memories, I wrapped the collection up and gifted it to Ashley for our 8th anniversary (Valentine's Day) along with two other shadow boxes. A special trip to a beautiful island is remembered forever now in this display. The hours spent roaming the beach, hunting for treasure, is now something Ashley will treasure.
Think I'm going to watch Lost now.
We've actually created a place on Martha's website, where you can upload and share scrapboxes you've made! Please share them—we love seeing what our viewers create!!!
From: neli | 3/2/10 at 12:36 pm
Wow its so beautifull idea i am going to try it!!!!!
From: Kirsten W | 3/2/10 at 6:40 pm
this is so inspiring and beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
From: By Little Hands | 3/2/10 at 7:42 pm
I love this. It is the perfect thing for the one wall of my bedroom that remains bare after our rennovation because we haven't found just the right thing. We live at the beach so this is just perfect!
From: mercedes | 3/3/10 at 10:38 am
How can I reach the Crafts Dept. I have a terrific idea for Easter eggs.
From: Carmelina Lounsbury | 3/5/10 at 1:07 pm
very lovely...the perfect solution to collecting fun! finally a great purpose and finale to 'what are you gonna do with all those shells?' dilema! lol
ciao
From: LeAnna Loseke | 3/31/10 at 3:36 pm
We have 15 wonderful grandchildren,and I could spend hours embroidering for them.What fun!
From: LeAnna Loseke | 3/31/10 at 3:38 pm
We have 15 wonderful grandchildren, and I could spend hours embroidering for them.What fun!
From: melisa coyle | 4/1/10 at 9:50 am
Hi Kristin,
? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have.
I have been looking for frog paper mache candy containers for my daughters asian lily pond birthday party. Do you think I could make them? Your crafts are beautiful. Since you did the paper mache eggs, I thought perhaps you could help me with the frog
Thank you, Melisa
From: Kelly B | 8/3/11 at 5:38 am
This is wonderful!!
From: Chris Kirkham | 8/25/11 at 10:04 pm
I love this idea, I've collected so much sea glass over the years, that this will be a perfect thing to do with it. I think I'll do it on a glass background though. But still, kudos to you.