Every time I am at the beach with my kids, I always pick up pretty shells and pieces of sea glass. Frankly, I don’t know why, I never have any specific purpose for them in mind, it has just become a habit for me. At the end of summer, my purse pockets are filled with little rocks, seashells and pieces of sea glass.
After the super storm Sandy knocked our power out for eight long days, I found myself in a desperate need for candleholders. Not usually one to use candles for fun, I didn’t have any around the house. We made do with jars and lids at the time, but now I found myself on the kick to make candleholders. The ones with the seashells turned out to be one of my favorites.
I bought a bunch of cheap glass candleholders at a craft store, I think they were no more than 50 cents each. I also had some glass pebbles around the house, some burlap, tacky glue, paint (white, blue and sparkle), and the seashells of course. Below are just a few possibilities for some awesome seashell candleholders! You will also need a brush to apply paint with, and for one of the ideas below, some blue seed beads.
Candleholder # 1
The first one was one of my favorites. It was also one of the simplest, though none of them are complicated.
Start by mixing some white paint with some sparkle paint or sparkle glue. Paint the outside of the candleholder with the mix, and set aside to dry.
Now either find a shell with a little hole in it (there are often plenty), or if you have a small craft drill, drill a hole.
Pull out a long string of burlap, if you don’t have burlap, use hemp, yarn, thinly cut piece of fabric, a thin rope, possibilities are endless. If the hole in the shell is too small for the burlap string to fit through, use a bit of fishing line to get it in.
First, fold the burlap string in two, then pull the fishing line through the loop in the burlap string so that they overlap with each other.
Put the two ends of the fishing line through the hole in the seashell. Gently pull through to the burlap string loop, and wiggle the burlap string into the hole as well.
Pull the burlap string almost all the way through, leaving a small loop.
Now take out the fishing line, and put the two ends of the burlap through the loop, and pull all the way through.
Put a dab of glue on the candleholder, put the seashell on that glue. Separate the two ends of the burlap string and wrap around the candleholder, Bringing them together in a bow over the shell.
Candleholder # 2
For this candleholder, cover a portion of your candleholder with a layer of tacky glue.
Spill some seed beads on an even surface, and roll the glue part in the beads.
Paint the bottom with your choice of paint color. I did one with white and sparkle, and one with blue.
Use the hat of a nail to make a design out of dots. You could take a few different sized nails and go wild with the dots.
Let it dry.
Candleholder # 3
This is another favorite of mine. First, take a bit of burlap fabric. Make sure it fits all the way around your candleholder. Apply a thin layer of tacky glue all the way around the candleholder where the burlap will go. Wrap the burlap fabric around and trim the edges.
Next, select the seashells, sea glass, pebbles, beads and other odds and ends that you would like on there. Use tacky glue to carefully glue them around the top, non burlap, part of your candleholder.
Allow to dry.
Candleholder # 4
Flip the candleholder upside down. Using tacky glue, glue on a few layers of pebbles.
Using the nail top, make a design on the rest of the candleholder.
All done!!
Here they are at night:
