Our visit to Ocean City, MD a few weeks ago produced more than just fun memories: we came home with a bucket full of seashells of all different sizes, shapes and colors.
These shells have been taking up residence in the garage waiting for a craft or activity to utilize them. Found One!
Supplies
- 3 red pipe cleaners
- 2 small black beads or buttons
- 1 large scallop or clam shell, cleaned and dried
- glue (we used school glue and Quik grip adhesive)
- red poster or acrylic paint & paint brush
Prep your work space to protect against paint and glue
Start with painting your shells. A trick for getting the snail shells completely covered in paint without getting paint all over your hands is to take one of your pipe cleaners cut it in half then fold each piece in half. Insert the folded end into your shell. This acts as a holder to and the crab legs you’ll later glue to the body shell.
Once your shells are painted and drying take the remaining 2 pipe cleaners and cut them into equal fourths. Crabs have 8 legs.
When your shells are dried proceed with gluing the legs and claws to the underside of your scallop/clam shell. This may take another round of drying time depending on the type of adhesive you use.
Once your legs and claws are set go ahead and flip your crab over glue on your eyes. Beads, buttons, googly eyes or tiny painted shells would work here too.
You crab now deserves a special place in your home.
