How To Make Seashell Shadow Boxes

Here is how to make seashell shadow boxes that were inspired by the ones from Pottery Barn. I’ll show you 4 different seashell shadow boxes that you can make to create a set to hang in your home.

How to Make Seashell Shadow Boxes

OK, I have to make a confession…I love Pottery Barn but when I find things I like, instead of adding them to my cart I’m trying to figure out how I can dupe them!!

So when I was looking through the Summer catalog and saw an amazing seashell shadow box I had to check it out! Yikes, it was $399!! So you know I had to figure out a way to DIY seashell shadow boxes on a budget.

This post includes affiliate links; you can read my disclosure policy here.

My inspiration

Supplies to make seashell shadow boxes

• Shadow Box Frames
• Various Sea Shells
• Linen/Cotton Fabric
• Hot Glue Gun/Glue

find the frames

The first thing I did was do a search for shadow box frames. The Pottery Barn frame was large, but unless I wanted to build a frame on my own they were wicked expensive!!

Then I saw that Michael’s was having a frame sale and they had 12×12 frames that came in a set of 2…this is when I had the aha moment and decided to make a set of 4 seashell shadow boxes.

Sidenote: wait for the Michael’s 1/2 price frame sales, they have them every few months. I got the set of 2 for $14.99.

If you don’t have a Michael’s near you I found a similar frame on Amazon

Then I had to figure out what seashells to use for the 4 frames. I wanted a variety of sizes and textures to make it all more interesting.

Pick out the seashells

I found these little scallop shells and mini sand dollars on Amazon.

I had a bag of resin starfish from the Christmas Tree Shops and a large real starfish in my crafting stash; Amazon has a zillion choices if you don’t have a local store that has seashells for crafting.

fabric

For the backing on the shadow boxes, I wanted a neutral tone. There are no fabric stores close to me so I ordered this natural-color linen.

Putting The Shadowbox Together

First, I took the backing off of all the shadow box frames and centered it on the linen. Then I just hot glued the linen to the frame backing.

For my first shadow box, I used small scallop shells. This one is going to be a circular pattern so I found the center of the frame and hot glued on one of the shells.

Then I did a circle of the scallop shells around the center shell. It was helpful to lay out the shells before gluing them into place to make sure they fit in a circle and can be spaced evenly…the shells in my bag were all slightly different shapes and sizes.

Then I did one larger circle of the scallop shells.

You can see me make this seashell shadow box in a Facebook live I did last month over on my page!!

starfish shadow box

This shadow box was much quicker to make! All I did was hot glue the starfish 3 across and made sure they were equally spaced out (I totally eyeballed it!).

large starfish shadow box

Talk about easy… Just a large starfish glued to the center!! Bam…done!

sand dollar shadow box

For the 4th and final seashell shadow box, I used teeny sand dollars.

They were super delicate but really pretty! A few sand dollars were harmed in the making of this craft…

Finished Seashell Shadow Boxes

I’m so happy at how the shadow boxes came out…and 4 of them for a fraction of the cost as my inspiration shadow box from Pottery Barn!

They are the perfect accent for my bathroom wall.

Do you like seashell crafts? Check out the wreath I made this summer!

here are a few links to my supplies and some other shells