Seashell Earring Display

You may have noticed that I've started using displays. My oldest daughter and son-in-law gave me a gift certificate for Mother's Day this year! The bracelet, and earring display arrived in a pretty timely manner. I think every jewelry making mama received gift certificates this year, and ordered the same necklace display I did! It was on back order for what seemed like forever! It arrived several weeks later. I have been using it for the last couple of weeks, and I love it! The bracelet display is nice too, and adds a professional touch. I do like the earring display I ordered, but it just doesn't work for all earrings. I will need to order another one, but for my shell earrings I wanted a more ocean-y feel to my pictures. I went through some of my big shells, and found a couple of pen shells that weren't to broken to use. After drilling some holes in them, and a little rub down with some mineral oil, (they were really dry) it was ready to be assembled into a foam block that I covered with a mixture of Mod Podge, Ceramcoat acrylic paint, and craft sand(yes, I really have store bought sand, but it's for crafts that I need pure WHITE sand). I love the way it turned out! Let the creative juices keep flowing~

I wish I had thought of taking pics along the way of making it, and putting it together, but.... hindsight ya know. I will need to practice taking pics of/with it, but for a first time, I don't think these turned out bad. The next whole pen shell I find will be rubbed with mineral oil as soon as it gets cleaned. I'm pretty sure it will keep it from cracking.

Del