I bought a grapevine wreath and spray painted it white and used hot glue to attach sea shells and they are not holding. Is there a glue that will hold up better than this?

I don't use hot glue for anything anymore because I've had too many failures like that. I like to use Loctite's clear polyseamseal all purpose waterproof caulk. It works well and I've made many shell wreaths using it. You can buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot and many hardware stores. These are all natural seashells that I beachcombed in the Marshall Islands.

That is beautiful Karen

Thanks, Vic! They are a lot of fun to do. It was one of those solid wreaths they have in the hobby stores. If you don't have shells, almost anything can be used. I've made them with beads, buttons, small toys, flat glass gems, etc. I later tied on a large ribbon and tied it into a bow so it could hang.

GREAT ideas

Lovely. I was going to suggest the same adhesive.

I use E-6000 also but only on flat to flat. I made a tempered glass covered bowling ball..still going strong years later

Yes, I have used the E-6000 mostly for fixing jewelry, but it's highly toxic and has to be used carefully, with good ventilation.

I'd never thought to use a caulk product, I would think it would take a long time to dry and things would fall off? Opposite of hot glue which sets right away. I am going to give it a try for sure.

It actually dries fairly quickly. The clear product is about like Elmer's glue in consistency. I like it because things can be removed and moved around for at least half an hour, but once it's dry, they are really on there to stay. I've done mosaics on wood and when I go to pry off a glued piece I don't like, it normally takes some of the wood with it when it comes off!

The white caulk is totally different, and harder to work with. I really like the clear. It is white when you use it but dries very clear.

I also use Mac glue on things that need to be totally see through. It dries the clearest of any product I've used, but it is expensive. It is good for glass on glass designs on windows.
https://macglue.com/

Most beautiful wreath you made, Karen, and what a collection you must have to color coordinate the wreath with mostly very light shells. Your information on the different type of adhesives is most helpful as who doesn't need to glue a "buncha of stuff" together at least once in one's life?

Once, instead of using hot glue, I wired every piece of synthetic glittered and no glitter fruit onto grapevine with leaves that you can buy at the hobby store to mount on top of a restaurant's 3 picture windows for Xmas and my hands haven't been the same since. I wish I could've glued everything on.

Did you get pics of the window decor, Bev?

I did that once, too! It was so hard on my hands. I really wanted a huge expensive wreath that I saw ready made, but it was too pricey. By the time I bought all of the things for it, I'd paid more than the original wreath, but I had to do it at that point. I agree that glue is the way to go!

I was not taking pictures back in the late 90's. I didn't have a camera then and was sort of forced to carry a cell phone in 2009. I think I took my first picture with a cell phone in 2012. I'm Low Tech for sure and only that because there's people around me that insist on buying me gadgets

I was the same way, Bev, but fortunately my husband had photography as a hobby, so he took a lot of photos and developed them in his darkroom. It sure was a chore and fairly costly back then.

I love the ease of digital cameras. I get pushed into tech stuff by him and our daughters. They buy me things I think I don't want or need, and then those things become indispensable.