Silver Shells

Do you need a last minute gift idea?

I was recently inspired by my blogger friend, Magny Tjelta’s post on making flowers for decorating gift wrapped presents.  Be sure to check out her video on her blog:

http://yourartisticjourney.com/2015/12/15/last-minute-wrapping-idea/

This got me swirling my watercolor paints around and look what appeared:

Yep!  Seashells!  🙂

This gave me an idea to create a garland of shells for a Christmas gift for a good friend of mine.

After I painted my “imaginary” shells on 140 lb hot press paper, I cut them out and added white gel pen accents and glitter!  (I was so excited to find 30 different colors of fine glitter on sale at Michaels!  I also found a glue pen to apply the glitter.  So fun!)

Here is a close-up of the starfish – it looks a little like a cut-out sugar cookie, doesn’t it?  🙂

Next, I made these little tabs out of leftover watercolor paper.  I folded the paper in half, punching a hole in one half and gluing the other half to the back of the shell:

I strung some glittery, silver wired ribbon through the holes on the back of the shells.  It helped to tape the ends of the ribbon so I could fit them easier through the holes.

I was surprised to have an 8 foot garland with 22 different shells!

So I put them in a box – don’t they look like candy?

And wrapped them up for my friend!

She opened them today and loves them.  YAY!

Happy Gift Making!  🙂