What’s a trip to the beach without taking home some free craft supplies? If you come here to the North Coast of Oregon, the beach is littered with shells. I went down to my neighborhood beach this weekend and gathered a big pile of clam shells in about 15 minutes.
I went with the idea of gathering shells for a beautiful lavender clam shell wreath and needed larger shells, but as I was picking up the smaller shells that were still attached to each other it dawned on me they were “fortune cookie-esque”!
Since I was using a grocery bag to gather the shells, I attracted a wistful old seagull who was hoping my lunch was inside!
I thought clam shell “fortune cookies” would be so fun to end a beachy BBQ or any beach themed party. Just bring out a plate of them at the end of the meal… just they do at your local Chinese restaurant.
STEP ONE: Wash and dry the clam shells.
STEP TWO: Use glue to make a glittery edge on the clam shell, I made my glitter show on the inside and outside of each shell.
STEP THREE: use glue stick to attach a “fortune” inside.
STEP FOUR: I like to cut the piece of muscle that sticks up so there isn’t a “bump” in the mandala paper.
I got this set of mandala’s from an Etsy shop. It is a good investment to have some good clip art. Just search for PNG mandala’s on Etsy.
STEP FIVE : The mandala will not lay flat on the shell surface so place some hot glue only in the center of the mandala to attach it to the shell.
STEP SIX: Cut close to the edge of the shell.
STEP SEVEN: Use hot glue to secure each edge to the shell.
STEP EIGHT: have fun decorating each shell. I only decorated the tops with paint pens, felt pens and of course, some Ranger Stickles glitter glue!
The clip art mandala holds the clam shell together until you run a fingernail in between the glittered edge and you can pry the two pieces apart to the see the message. I used “Sweetheart” candy quips as my inspiration for the fortunes.
I had no idea I was going to be making clam shell fortune cookies a few hours ago, it is so fun to find inspiration just about everywhere you go. YAY!
