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On vacation I found a lot of sand dollars I want to put one in a shadow box for each of the family members that went on vacation. Of all the adhesives I have (practically everything) which one will hold it in the center of the box so it will stay even while the frame is hanging? Any ideas? Any experience with rough sand dollars?
I would have said silicone too- Its consistency will make it easy to lightly press the sand dollar to it, and it will hold the rough surface. My choice of glue for any rough/awkward surface every time. It even sticks to glittery surfaces! Once its cured, it will stay stuck, no matter what.
You'll often see them as stamps or dies in seaside themed sets. I'd love to see a real one.
Here's a card with little decorative card ones (I'm guessing that's what she used the Silhouette for, or else they're a die): The Mighty Sea - CCEE1327
I'm sorry I don't have an answer to the original question, but I have to share my sand dollar story. Many years ago my family found dozens of them on Florida's gulf coast - in all shapes and sizes - but unfortunately (unknown to us), not dead. Hey, it's over a thousand miles to the nearest ocean from our home, so we were clueless.
We drove with them in the trunk from Treasure Island, FL, intending to do something really crafty once we got back to Wisconsin. By they time we stopped for gas in southern Georgia, they started to stink to high Heaven. We had no idea they were alive when we picked them up so we felt terrible that we had killed them! We ended up dumping them in the gas station garbage - there was no way we could stand the smell for almost 1,000 more miles.
Whenever I see or think about sand dollars, I'm taken back to this (otherwise) great road trip.
these are some of the sand dollars we found. The dark ones are starting to lighten, they bleach out in light.
For those of you who haven't seen one, they are fragile and a little rough, like sandpaper.
When I was a kid visiting relatives in Florida, they taught us to go out past the breakers into the swells. We'd rise up with the swells, but when we came down, we could feel the sand dollars with our toes, work them out of the sand and bring them up between our feet.
Then my cousins had us put them all up on the roof of the house (which interestingly was covered in crushed shells) to bleach in the sun. We didn't do anything with them after that - just kept them as souvenirs.
Such a vivid memory of finding them - I wish I still had some. We usually broke a couple apart to see if we could keep the "star" intact, and then would break it into the "doves." There is a link in this article to a photo of the star and doves: Legend of the Sand Dollar
This is a crafters Silicone type glue, available over there, from Crafters Companion.
There is a brand available over here, now being sold in the Us, called Stix2- if you e-mail them here,[email protected], they will tell you of their nearest stockist. I use these two products all the time.
Heavy Gel Medium. Choose matte (instead of glossy) so that when it dries, you won't notice any shininess around the edges if any seeps out. (You can also use the tip of something, like a pair of tweezers, to gently wipe away any while it's still wet). My preferred brand is Golden. It holds heavy things extremely well. You can find it in the art supplies/paint section of major craft and hobby stores.
Spread some on the back of your sand dollar like you're icing a cake (be generous, but don't get too close to the edge so that it doesn't squeeze out beyond the edge of the sand dollar). Gently press your sand dollar down onto your substrate and let it dry thoroughly (will probably take overnight). Unlike E-6000, it does not have a toxic smell and you can use it to glue practically anything: buttons, fabric/ribbon, metal embellishments, grungeboard, wood items, practically anything.
I used it to glue the seashells, mini sand dollar, and mini starfish onto this project. As well as to glue the feet onto the bottom block.
(click on photo to enlarge)
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Last edited by missiowa81; 07-09-2013 at 08:17 PM..
I would use pinflair glue gel. Not sure if it's available in the us but it's very popular over here. It's like silicon glue but without the awful smell.
A large amount of any thick wet glue should work. Not thin glue like white glue though. Any dimensional glue, beacon 3 in 1, FabricTac or similar thickness along with the other suggestions. Anything that will fill in the grooves on the underside and remain in a thick enough layer to also stick to the backing.
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I enjoyed reading about how people inland had experiences with them. We live on the coast and I taught marine science for several years. We always bleach the dead ones we find on the beach.
Just a quick note for those of you who might be visiting Florida and picking up some live sand dollars. It is illegal in Florida to take live sand dollars. Things aren't what they used to be. Come visit anyway. We love living here.
Oh, great! I felt bad enough that I killed dozens of sand dollars all those years ago - now to know that it's illegal, I feel like a criminal, too! I love all things Florida and I've had some great vacations there. I hope they don't have me on their most wanted list.
Just curious Carole, was that purely for aesthetics or is there another reason to bleach?
Aesthetics and so they won't smell or attract bugs - It's hot and humid in the south!
You see tons of shells and sand dollars used in crafts here, and sand dollars are always bleached. Lots of Christmas ornaments made from oyster shells and sand dollars.
Just a quick note for those of you who might be visiting Florida and picking up some live sand dollars. It is illegal in Florida to take live sand dollars. Things aren't what they used to be. Come visit anyway. We love living here.
Yep, here too. The DNR officer even told me not to remove a dead horseshoe crab from the beach. :rolleyes:
I figured if they didn't have the hair on them they were no longer alive, I tossed the ones with hair back into the shallow water.
I didn't see any signs about leaving the shells and sand dollars. When we got to the airport we went through a security check point right away (seemed odd to me since we were right near the door and someone could still get a weapon into their luggage). When we were putting our suitcases, mine filled with sand dollars and seashells, onto the conveyor belt to be xrayed I smashed my little toe and ripped off the nail, I started to cry and the man checking the luggage was flustered, I am not sure he looked at my case going through, he was too busy finding me a bandage. It wasn't until we were on the plane I said something to my daughter about the weird security check point and that we had to go through a second xray (the real security checkpoint). She told me it was an FDA check point looking for food and shells. Yikes! too late. I do feel a tinge of bad karma on this one.
found sand dollars, now what?
