Shell Crafts - Shell Angels and Altered Bottle

Shell Crafts

I was missing from blogland as we had gone on a family holiday to Pondicherry in South India.An interesting thing about Pondicherry is that French is an official language of the Indians there and the streets retain French names! Well let me not bore you with more tourism info[ I seem to be doing that too much nowadays!].While sightseeing we landed by mistake on a "non tourist" beach and we were greeted by the most wonderful sight-- the beach was encrusted with such gorgeous shells! To crafty souls like my daughter and myself it was like being dazzled by diamonds ! We were crazy with delight and picked up so many lovely shells.I have nearly 2 kilos of them now!

The moment we reached home we just had to play with our precious shells!
Here is a bottle we altered

Shell Crafts

Its a simple shell design stuck on with white glue excepting for the shell leaves which I wanted to stick out at a perpendicular and hence used Mseal.

Shell Crafts

Here is a simple pattern on the bottle cap. 

Shell Crafts

Shell Angles
The Shell Angel is pretty easy to make if you have a good adhesive. If you want to try it with white glue be prepared to be super-patient !  I used white Mseal to help to stick the shells together for the bigger angel which my daughter calls as " Mamma Angel". Stack 2, 3 or even 4 shells atop each other apply adhesive at points of contact and stick.

Shell Crafts

Here is the view from the top to show how 2 shells are stuck together for the head and the wing attachment with Mseal.

Shell Crafts

Here is our Shell angel all decked up. We added some fabric flowers to the wings.I tied a golden ribbon around the neck and also made it into a loop to make our shell angel a hanging ornament.All the embellishments were bought locally.You could add googly eyes or beads or even draw some facial features but somehow I didn't feel like adding eyes to the shell face as I wanted the natural shell beauty.

Shell Crafts

Here is the back side of the shell angel with the fabric flowers covering the adhesive and ribbon knot.

Shell Crafts

For the 2nd and smaller shell angel I used the glue gun [ available in India if anyone is wondering!] It gives a neater and lighter finish.

Shell Crafts

Add a loop of yarn or ribbon at the back of the shell angel and use it as Christmas tree ornaments or car mirror hanging.

Shell Crafts

My little one wants to make a whole family of angles! We have Mamma and Baby Shell Angel now!

Shell Crafts

Do try some shell craft and tell me how you like our shell angels and simple altered craft.
Linking to Artsy Craftsy