"Shabby Chic" Sea Shell Frame

              My family and I went on a vacation to the beach, and we had pictures taken while we were there, right on the beach.  As soon as we got home from the beach I had all the pictures printed so that I could hang a few on the wall.  Normally I just go with black frames, but for this I really wanted the so called "shabby chic" look.  I figured white, banged up, old looking frames with some sea shells would def give it the beach feel.  

          The frame I was hoping to find was one with a flat surface but I couldn't find one that didn't cost way too much.  (At least too much for me to take home and destroy.)  I found these frames at Walmart at one of the end caps at the end of the frame aisle.  I had a hard time finding frames that were actually wood and didn't just appear to be wood.  The frames I bought were a super dark, almost black color and were only about $3 a piece!  

          All of the instructions I found for making this look included things like me sanding the frame FIRST and then painting it with a dark color, then white, sanding it again and using a rag and an ink pad.  That sounded like too much work.  So instead I just painted these already dark wood frames over with white acrylic paint.  I used small pieces of sand paper to essentially mess up the edges, corners and various other places on the frames.  I guess it depends on how old and damaged you want it, so I won't tell you how much to sand.  (If you do too much and you don't like it, you can always paint over those parts and try again.)  

           The blue sand bucket in the picture below was full of shells from our trip.  I arranged the shells on the frames the way I wanted them and then carefully starting gluing them one by one.  I used loctite heavy duty super glue.  I feel like I went a little over board with the shells on the larger frame, but I still love it!