She Sells Sea Shells By My Backdoor

I am in currently in the middle of a major backyard/garden makeover. Since I rent everything I do needs to be cheap and preferably removable. Hopefully, in the next few weeks I will be able to have a full reveal. In the meantime here is a little sneak peak tutorial!

I original saw this idea on Martha Stewart Living and knew I had to have these lights in my yard. I already had all the supplies necessary. With J.O. still in Germany I had a free Friday night and sat down to watch some Grey's Anatomy reruns and create these lights.

Supplies:

• Amazing GOOP® Craft 2.0 oz Adhesive

• String Lights

• Seashells (I think mine were originally from Joann's but these ones are similar)

• Clothes Pins
• Outlet adapter for plugging in lights 

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How To:

Squeeze glue along the hinge of the seashell and where the tip of the light will hit. Immediately place the light on the shell. I ended up gluing part of the shell to the cord and the tip of the light in the middle of the shell. I then used a clothes pin to hold everything in place. You can remove the pin after 10 minutes or so.

While this seemed pretty easy it almost ended up as a failure. I started out using standard Christmas lights. You know the kind I'm talking about the cheap green ones. I had an older set of them that weren't being used and thought I'd give it a try. Surprisingly they were too big and the chord was too thick. After getting frustrated, I remembered that I had a new box of LED string lights. This immediately started to work better. But I was still having trouble getting the lights to really attach to the shells. I tried the method from Martha, I tried using tape to hold them together long enough to let the glue dry. And then in this darkest moment, I grabbed the clothes pin that had been on my bag of potato chips and used it to clamp the shell to the light. VOILA! It worked! So lesson be learned always have a snack with you when you are crafting.


The final step in this is hanging them up. I have spent  a lot of time trying to decide the best way for me to hang lights up and outside, since I don't have an outlet. The solution for me ended up being a light socket converter. This little beauty allows me to convert any light bulb socket into an outlet. And it still lets me use the light bulb! Did I mention they are super cheap? The only down side is how ugly it is. But I have a couple of ideas to spruce this thing up. Y'all will just have to wait and see.