Homemade Seashell Memory Boxes Kids Can Make for Gifts

A perfect homemade craft gift item kids can make for their parents, or grandparents, as well as other special friends and relatives. Very few supplies are required to make this elegant homemade craft, as it is easy to complete in an afternoon; and then left to dry overnight, it will be ready to wrap up the next morning. Your kids can even make several of these at a time, set up in assembly-line fashion.

Craft Supplies

You will not have to buy boxes or shells, if you or someone you know collects shells, and has plastic containers, as well as small square shipping boxes lying around. The smaller the box, or container is, the fewer shells you will need to glue onto the box lid.

1 can white-gloss spray paint (will cover at least 10 small boxes, inside and out)

1 square or rectangular plastic baby-wipe container or facial-cloth holder (labels removed and sterilized)

Or

1 small flap-over folded cardboard shipping box (pull off any excess tape)

Or

1 small baby-shoes box, with a fitted, lift-off lid

1 or 2 handfuls of beautiful shells, in unique shapes, and colors (per box lid)

1 bottle white craft glue

Or

1 hot or cold glue gun with appropriate glue sticks

Deciding Which Boxes Need Spray Paint

If your child is using a plastic container, in plain white, or a pleasing pastel shade, there is no need to spray paint it at all (go directly to gluing on the shells). If the container has the company's name, logo, or other printing on the outside, then you (not your child) should spray paint it.

Spray paint boxes outdoors, on newspapers, and allow to dry at least a half hour, before turning to spray another side, before gluing on the shells. Plastic containers will not need to be painted on the inside or bottom, only on the top and sides, if needed at all.

Cardboard boxes will need to be spray painted on all sides, inside and out. Begin by thoroughly spraying the inside of the box and/or box lid, plus any outside box surfaces, and allow to dry for a half hour. Then reposition the boxes to finish spraying all the other box surfaces, and allow to dry.

Gluing On the Seashells

The last, and final step, to creating cherished seashell memory gift boxes, is gluing the seashells onto the box lid. Using either inexpensive white craft glue, or hot/cold glue gun; glue the shells into a bow pattern, or in a hap-hazard manner, on the box top, allowing glue to set overnight.

My Seashell Gift Box

I would not normally recommend gluing shells in such a disorganized manner, however I watched my son make some of these, when he was just 8 years old. He glued many of my expensive (not to mention hand-collected, and articulately organized) seashells, onto the top of an old diaper-wipe box, with wild abandon. My artistic hands twitched, and I had to bite my lip, to prevent myself from rescuing his potential gift-box disaster.

As I watched him mix shells and sand dollars, with pieces of lavender crystal, and pink heart-shaped, cut-glass bobbles; I realized his creativity was poured out onto each different item, as it presented itself to him. I was so amazed when his masterpiece was finished, that I vowed to take a more relaxed approach to artistic crafting; instead of frantically trying to fit uneven seashell puzzle-pieces together (as I always had before).

My seashell gift box was presented to me that year as a memory box, with beautiful shells and jewels on top, ready to be filled with future keepsakes. Although the gift box is given empty, for the desired recipient's mementos, mine came full of the notion, that beauty can flow haphazardly too.