You’ve gone fossil hunting and came away with a nice little pile of treasures. Now what?
Here is an easy craft that the family can put together to display all those shells, fossils and shark teeth. Tedious? Yes, but it is a great rainy day activity when looking for an activity for the family.
Materials required:
- Elmer’s washable school glue
- Shark teeth, fossils or shells
- Wood pallet plaque (sample is a reclaimed wood piece from Michael’s Crafts and cost approximately $15)
For this example I went to Google Images and found a shark silhouette to give me an idea how to lay out my shark teeth. You could also do a mermaid, whale, or any other ocean theme. We used teeth and fossils we found on a day trip to Calvert Cliffs.
Before you start, make sure the teeth are clean and dry. I laid out the teeth on the wood first, without glue. Start with the outline and the mouth and then work back to the tail. This took about an hour. Once I was happy with the preliminary layout, I started to glue. I just used tweezers and dipped the back of each tooth into the glue, then applied it to the plaque, one at a time. The nice thing about the Elmers glue is that since it does not dry quickly, it is very forgiving. You can move things around if needed. Plus, it dries clear and is water soluable should you ever want to take it apart. The entire project took about 2 1/2 hours.
Once you have them glued in place, allow it to dry overnight before hanging it up. Enjoy!
Joyce Heid