Beach Vacation Memories – Painting Seashells

We love taking family vacations to the beach. Every time we go we collect seashells with the grandkids. Why? Well, we bring them home and paint them! It’s a great way to preserve those fun beach memories. It’s an arts and crafts project that allows the kids to be creative plus gives them something to do over the summer months. Once painted they can be displayed inside or outside of your home.

We like placing them throughout our flower gardens, back deck decorations or placed around our swimming pool. The kids like to give a few of them to friends and family members too. Love to paint on shells? You’ll find 100+ painted seashell designs on the TwoClassyChics blog!

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Cleaning – All seashells need to be properly cleaned! We recommend washing them in a sink with warm soapy water. We use Dawn Liquid Dish Soap as it’s the best for removing grease, dirt, sand, and those fishy smells from the shells. Rinse with clean water. Take shells outside and let them dry in the sunshine for 1-2 days.

Prepping Shells – We base coated all of the shells with acrylic craft paints in various colors. Some shells got 2 coats of paint with 30 minutes of drying time between coats. Make sure the paint is thoroughly dry before decorating them.

Decorating Shells – The shells were decorated with a combination of acrylic craft paints and a paint brush while others paint pens were used. You can pick up the paint pens in a pack from Amazon for a great price. Let the kids get creative making their own designs.

Finishing – Once all of the paint has dried you’ll want to preserve them by spraying 1-2 coats of a clear acrylic spray sealer on each side of the shell. This protects the painted finish and will allow you to display them outside. We used one that was clear with a glossy finish. You can choose a matte finish if that’s what you prefer. Spray them outside and let dry overnight.

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