DIY Mermaid Shell Crown

I'm a huge mermaid fanatic and decided I wanted a really gaudy mermaid shell crown. I decided I'd try to make one instead of buying one as the finished crowns are rather pricey and shells are pretty inexpensive.

After I made this, I searched to see if there were others and pikachu4592 made a really nice one that can be found here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wearable-Shell-Mermaid-Crown/.

To make this crown, you will need:

Shells (I got mine at a thrift store but they can be bought at Michael's as well)
Hot glue gun
Floral wire
Pliers
Glittery leaves
Headband

Optional: plastic pearls and fishing wire with a needle. This is in case you really want to go all out and put pearls all over the headband so you don't see the metal headband at all. I didn't chose to do this since the headband was hidden in my hair, plus I'm 6 feet tall so very few people will even see the top of my head.

I had a lot of shells, so I sorted them in to piles of similar shapes and sizes. I didn't want the crown to be perfect, I thought a mermaid would just sort of find shells on the ocean floor and make them into a crown, so I chose shells that were similar to each other, but not perfectly matching.

After I sorted them, I laid them out in the design and shape that I wanted.

I decided to use the same technique as I used for my my Rapunzel tiara (https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Rapunzel-Tiara/) so I cut wires that were about two inches bigger than the shells. I then bent the wires about an inch on each end and wrapped the pieces around the headband. All the wires are the same basic shape as the shells, but be sure that the wires won't show above the shells once they're attached.

I hope your hot glue gun is ready to go, because you're going to be using it A LOT!

I started at the end of the crown because I wanted the center of the crown to be on top of all the other shells. Think of a set of stairs and all the shells are stepping up to the landing of the center shells.

I bent the wire a little bit for every wire to make them fit nicely next to the shells.

Now make like a tabloid reporter and embellish!

I cut the leaf into three pieces and glued it to the back of shells. I then looked for any empty spaces or those I thought looked bare and hot glued smaller shells to those spots.

Put your crown on, shimmy into your fins, stick on your sea shells and go for a swim!