Hand Painted Nautical Anchor Seashell Paper Weight

Father’s Day is coming up and my granddaughter wanted to paint a large seashell for her Pappy to use on his desk as a paper weight. Since we’re beach lovers, she decided to paint one in a ship’s Anchor design. This would be a great craft project for older children or adults. You don’t have to be an expert artist to paint one.

You’ll need a large 4″ to 5″ wide clam shell from the beach. Wash it in hot, soapy water to remove all of the sand, debris, and fishy odors. I recommend using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap which works great! Let air dry for 1-3 days. They’ll dry faster if placed outside in the sunshine.

Base coat the entire clam shell with 2-3 coats of red acrylic craft paint allowing for 30-45 minutes of drying time between coats.

We used Google to find a free Anchor Template image…resized it to fit onto the seashell and printed it out. Use scissors to cut it out and then a pencil to lightly trace around the anchor shape onto the shell.

If you have a steady hand you can use navy blue acrylic paint and a paint brush to paint the anchor shape. My granddaughter opted to use a navy blue acrylic paint pen with a medium tip. She used that same color to add the polka dot border. Let it dry for 1-2 hours.

The same goes for the white border around the anchor. You can use traditional paint and a brush or use a white acrylic paint pen like she did.  You’ll need to let everything dry for 1-2 hours or until the paint is no longer tacky.

Take it outside and lightly spray each side of the seashell with 1-2 coats of a clear acrylic spray sealer. We used one that gives the shell a glossy, shiny finish. Let dry for 3 hours.

Use the shells as garden & yard art, back deck decor, front porch decor, paper weights, picnic tablecloth weights, etc. Get creative and have fun! Looking for more hand painted seashell designs? Into rock painting? We’ve got 100’s of free projects on the TwoClassyChics blog!

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