Sparkly Sea Urchins...

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Here's a quick little tute for you on this snowy Sunday while I wait for paint to dry on a dresser that I'm in the process of repainting... I have a pile of sea urchin shells... sans spikes.... that I'd collected while back home on various trips to Newfoundland...  and it hit me the other day to glitter them!...

No urchins were harmed... by me... in the making of these sparkly little treasures!... You see... seagulls pickup the live urchins from the shoreline... carry them up onto the marshy cliff tops and peck out the tasty morsel inside... EW!... the sun dries them out and BAM!... THEY'RE ALL MINE...

This one is another one of those easy quick little projects that you can bang out quickly... so quickly that you won't make it through one full glass of bubbles before you're done!... ;)

So there are a couple of ways that you can paint sea urchins... spray painting is one option if you have a large number to do... or with some craft paint and a soft paint brush... don't be rough with the shells... they are delicate...

For this project I opted for a very fine glitter and of a good clear glue... Check out what Martha Stewart has to offer... there is a lot of choice!... With a thicker glitter like the German Glass Glitter you would lose the details of the urchin shells... though it may be a neat look it wasn't the one that I wanted this time... 

Use a resealable container when you're glittering... this way you contained the mess sparkly magic while you're sprinkling... after the base coat of paint has dried lightly apply glue to the urchin... I brushed glue onto 1/3 of the urchin at a time... lightly glue then glitter... lightly glue then glitter... lightly glue then glitter... aaaand you're done!...

To test out this project I started with just two urchins and white iridescent glitter... they're pinky and green looking depending on the angle of the light... I'm whipping up a batch of these this evening for the Vintage with Flair sale this coming Saturday!... it's sooo close now!... 

I'm going to give them a spin in fine silver glitter... I'll post a few shots after they're done tonight... if you give this a try let me know how it works out!...

xo

Lacey