Framed Sand Dollar - DIY Wall Art

I love sand dollars! They're so fragile and beautiful. But with 3 clumsy little monsters ~ wait, what? I mean... with 3 beautiful and energetic children ~ it's hard to display sand dollars. In my case it means framing them, or keeping them waaaaay up high!

We just returned from an amazing Spring Break on Jekyll Island, Georgia. We have tons of awesome pictures (on FB) from the trip, and lots of fun memories. It's such a beautiful place.

Every year one of my fondest memories is of walking along the beach finding sand dollars. Many of the sand dollars we find are still alive, and we happily throw them back in the sea. Sometimes we get lucky, and we find a whole dead sand dollar ~ well, lucky for us, not so lucky for the sand dollar.

When we find a whole dead sand dollar, we pack them carefully in paper towels and schlep them back to Central New York.

They're so breakable they best way I've found to display them is to hang them up, but I'd love any new ideas!

For this little sand dollar frame: All I did was use a tiny frame, some burlap, a dot of hot glue and the sand dollar. I didn't bother to put the glass back in the frame, just left it open. I added it to my gallery wall, and it should be safe for years.

I've got a few more sand dollars, so I looked on-line for ideas to safely display them.

The first thing I realize is that I need to "harden" them. A mixture of half glue/half water (which is just homemade mod-podge) is the best way to give the sand dollar "shell super powers". Just brush the glue mixture over the sand dollar and allow to dry. This should help reduce breakage.

Now on to a couple of ideas that I found:

I've got plenty of pillar candles that could be embellished like so. Love.