Over Thanksgiving one year my family took a vacation to St. John’s in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was beautiful and memorable to say the least. My husband and I spent every spare moment scouring our private beach for seashells and other treasures. After days of this, we accumulated quite a pile of beautiful shells, some perfectly intact, and lots of broken pieces. While we traveled light on this trip, I think we added about 20-30 lbs to our luggage on our return trip.

Once we were home I looked at all we had collected and thought, “what now?” In my quest to find a seashell DIY project, I found one really good one. So I decided to try out these Glowing Beach Votives, and ended up making one for myself and all the girls in my family.

I love them! It was the perfect way to display all those beautiful broken pieces that I thought would be useless except to pack away and look at on occasion. Here are the instructions.

Materials:

FIMO Soft translucent clay
white or natural colored sand
mini shells, broken shell pieces
round glass votive
craft knife
pasta machine or clay roller
votive candle

Steps:

1. Condition clay (with pasta machine or by hand rolling). Make a sheet of the FIMO roughly as thick as cereal-box cardboard (setting 5 on the pasta machine).
2. Cut one end of the sheet of FIMO with the craft knife to give a straight cut and lay this onto the glass votive. Stretch and press the clay to lie flat on the glass surface. Cut where it overlaps and press to join. Using a smooth, nonporous item (such as a glass), roll over the clay in different directions to remove any air pockets.
3. With the craft knife, trim the extra FIMO from the bottom and top of the votive. Smooth the edges with your fingers to round off.
4. Use more FIMO to make another flat sheet that is the thickest setting of your pasta machine. Trim one side of the sheet with the craft knife for a straight edge. Trim the other side in a wavy line.
5. Align the straight edge of this clay sheet with the top of the votive and lay the wavy sheet over the first layer. Trim where the sheet overlaps and press to remove any seam. (You may need to trim the wavy piece to join together.) Press this layer of the FIMO onto the previous covering to remove any bumps or air bubbles.
6. Begin embedding small pieces of sea glass and shells into the top, thicker area of the FIMO. Press the polymer around the edges of the shells and glass to secure them.
7. Pour sand in a pan or plastic bag. Roll the votive in the sand, pressing the sand into the FIMO to secure.
8. Bake per the clay manufacturer’s guidelines. Allow to cool. Add a candle and enjoy your glowing beach votive!

For more photos, go here.

[ Via HGTV ]