Beachy Ornament

We were at the beach in Gulf Shoes, Alabama back in August and I decided to save some sand and shells from our trip.  Not just any sand, but the actual sand and shells that Olive played with!  This was Olive's second trip to the beach, but the first time she was just 6 weeks old and never touched the sand.  She was in heaven on her second trip in all the sand and could have played there for ours.  She dug holes, collected shells and only tried to eat a few.  I thought a sand/shell filled Christmas ornament would be a wonderful way to commemorate our trip to the beach.

I grabbed a Solo cup we brought down for drinks and scooped up a handful of white sand and gathered her pile of shells to take home with us.  I put it all in a ziploc bag and brought it home with us.  I purchased a clear ball ornament at Michaels that I knew would be perfect container.

Beachy Ornament Supplies:

clear ball ornament (I always pick plastic ones and love the ones at Michael's)

pretty ribbon

gift tag

sand

shells

super glue

sharpie

 I tried several different colors of ribbon and tags - blue, purple and then decided that the pink looked best with the shells and sand.

I wrote out the details of our trip and a fun fact about the shells and sand!

 Put your sand in and only fill it with a small handful.  I dumped in far too much the first time and then realized my ornament weighed five TONS and would never be able to hang on a tree.

 Add in the shells.

Lucky for me, the shells we collect in Alabama are pretty small so they fit in nicely.  If you only have large shells, you'll probably need to purchase an ornament that opens up in two pieces instead of the kind I have that you fill up.

 Add in the tag and position the way you want it.

Top with the ornament topper.

Add pretty ribbon bow to the top.

My ornament was a little heavy so I decided to super glue the ornament top onto the ornament to ensure it would hold up.  I let it dry over night and it was perfect the next day.

 I can't wait to tell Olive the story behind this ornament when she gets older.  It makes me smile every time I see it on her tree to think that is the sand and shells she was playing with at the beach.