DIY: Seashell Garland

Hello lovelies! Long time, no see (if there is anyone left in the world who will read this).

Let us begin.

If you are like me, when you see an interesting shell at the beach, you can't just leave it there. It's not like flowers, where if you pick it dies. The way I see it, shells have already served their purpose on the beach and are ready to begin their new lives as craft supplies. I always have them lying around, scattered about my bedroom. I don't do much with them. They usually just sit on shelves, or in jars. About a year ago I had collected 11 shells that were similar in color and shape, but varied in size. They happened to be perfect for making a garland. I hope you enjoy this super easy and fun DIY!

To make this you will need:

as many seashells as you like, with small holes in them

string of your choice; this is a great use for your scraps of string 

from previous crafts

To begin, your shells will all need to have holes in them. Most of mine did not, so I had to make some. I am not particularly handy with power-tools, and had no idea if I even had a small enough drill bit, so I improvised. Making the holes was fairly simple, so I won't bother posting a separate tutorial on it. All I did was position an X-Acto knife where I wanted the hole (on the inner side of the shell) and tapped on it with a hammer a few times. I would recommend that you put something under your shell (like a paper towel) to catch the dust and shell-bits that will be left behind. Also, I can't promise that it won't hurt of dull your knife, I used an old one that already had a broken tip. WARNING, in my house, waking the baby is practically a felony, so if noise is an issue, you may want to do it outside.

Once your shells are ready, lay them out the way you want them to be on the garland. I arranged mine in order from smallest to largest and back to smallest, because I happened to have shells that were the correct size. Make sure that you have them spaced how you want them, because that will be important in the next step.

To measure your sting, just make it a bit more than twice the length of you shell arrangement. I had a lot more string that I needed, but I didn't cut it until I was finished to avoid making it too short. 

This is the hardest step, but it's super easy once you get the hang of it. Like, super easy. It is now time to actually knot your shells onto your string. Start far back on your string, where you measured twice the length of your shells.

Make a loose knot 

Thread the string through the hole in the shell

Move the shell towards the knot

Put the end of the string (which you threaded through the shell) through your knot

Pull the end of the string and tighten the knot

Repeat with all of your shells until you are finished!

C'est tres jolie!

I hung mine up on top of this lovely wall decoration that I got from Free People.

It's like having a little bit of the beach to brighten up your room!

P.S.

Some bands I'm into right now:

MSMR

Lorde

The Arctic Monkeys

Radiohead
Foster the People