What to use to stick shells to a wooden box?

[bsmirched]

When I was little and had collected some shells, my Grandma helped me make a keepsake box for my Mum. The box was made of a lightweight wood and we set the shells into some sort of white paste that then hardened. (My Mum still has this box with all the shells intact and I'm 40 this year!)

We've recently been on our first family holiday with our DS who is 1 and I collected some shells and though it might be nice to do something similar. Does anyone have any idea what my Grandma might have used to set the shells in? Would some kind of putty type stuff do it?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

We did the same thing on flowerpots when we were little - I think we used polyfilla tbh!

Aha! That sounds like a possible plan!

I'd like to point out at this point that I'm not planning on doing the box with DS, as I'm not that brave/stupid but am doing it as a memento of his first beach holiday!

Just done this and we were advised to use tile adhesive. Seems to have worked okay-used an all in one adhesive/grout.

I was taught to do this using Polyfilla, with the option of colouring it by mixing in some kind of powder, although food-colouring or acrylic paint should work as well.

Ditto with the polyfilla

All great ideas - thank you!