Hand-Painted Pet Paw Print Seashells

Over the past 18 months we’ve shared many of our hand-painted large seashell and clam shell designs with the readers of this blog. They have been some of our most popular posts here and over on Pinterest. We’re glad that our readers are liking them because they’re really easy-to-make and don’t cost a lot of money. Great projects for kids and adults.

Today’s project is easy and very versatile. You can make these pet paw print seashells to idolize your favorite furry friend or turn them into yard art memorials. If you’re pet has passed on you can paint their name onto the seashell too. If you’re not great at hand-painting, you can do the outlining and handwriting portions with black Sharpie Markers which also saves time.

Hand-Painted Pet Paw Print Seashells

Large Clam Shell or Seashell
Green Metallic Acrylic Craft Paint
Dark Chocolate Brown Acrylic Craft Paint
Black Acrylic Craft Paint (or) Sharpie Marker
Paint Brush, Water Dish and Paper Towels
Clear Acrylic Spray Sealer in Glossy Finish
Old Newspaper

Paw Print Template: We went to Google and typed in “Paw Print Template” and a ton of free templates came up underneath the image tab. We found one that we liked, resized it under our browser viewing setting to fit onto the front of our seashell and then printed it out. Cut it out with scissors and now you have a template that you can trace around onto your seashell. The image links constantly change, so that’s why I don’t insert them into my post, but do tell you how we found it.

We gave our large clam shells 2 coats of green metallic acrylic paint for our background (base coat) color, allowing each coat to dry approximately 30 minutes. You’ll want to center your paper template on top. You can trace around it using a pencil or a light-colored Sharpie Marker (I often use the silver which is an easy color to paint over).

Use the dark chocolate brown acrylic paint to color-in the paw print design. We laid it on thick as we wanted it to look lumpy with texture to it. Just thought it added more interest. Let it dry for about an hour. Take black acrylic paint or a black Sharpie Marker and trace around your painted design. This will make the paw print POP against the background color. You can opt to add a pet’s name, birth date, passing date and other information.

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Once everything is dry you’ll want to take them outside and lay them down onto old newspaper. Have an adult lightly spray them with the clear acrylic spray sealer. If displaying them indoors, one coat will be sufficient, if you plan on displaying them outdoors, I recommend 2 full coats of the sealer. That’s it, enjoy them!