Kid’s Crafts – Hand Painted Beach Theme Seashells

We took our 2 grandchildren down to the beach for summer vacation. While we were there we walked the beach and collected seashells. We came home with 2 bags of shells to craft with! When collecting shells you ONLY want to collect shells that are vacant. Don’t kill marine life just to get a seashell!!!

Love to paint on shells? You’ll find 100+ painted seashell designs on the TwoClassyChics blog!

* Post contains affiliate links.

You’ll want to wash all shells in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Why Dawn? It’s the best at removing sand, debris, and fishy odors. Rinse all shells with clean water. Take them outside to dry in the sunshine for 1-2 days. They need to be clean and dry before painting on them.

Each one will need 2-3 coats of acrylic craft paint for the base coat. Allow for 30-45 minutes of drying time between coats. Don’t be afraid to mix colors together on the shell to get a marbled or mottled background color. If you look closely at 2 of the ones in your photo…you’ll see that 2 shades of blue and a green were mixed together and muddled on the shell to get a unique background color. It’s dimensional instead of just one single color.

We purchased a plastic stencil that had various beach designs on it. When purchasing a stencil make sure the designs are small enough to fit onto the shell. Because the shell isn’t a flat and even surface…we used a pencil to trace the design onto each shell following the lines of the stencil.

Once the design has been traced onto the shell it’s time to paint and decorate them. The kids used a combination of acrylic craft paints with a brush…and used acrylic paint pens for the outlining and words. If you want to skip the mess…just use acrylic paint pens to do all of the design work. Let thoroughly dry.

Take the painted beach seashells outside. Spray them with 1-2 light coats of a clear acrylic spray sealer. You’ll need to allow for 30-45 minutes of drying time between coats. The sealer will protect the painted finish. You can display the painted shells inside or outside of the home.

* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!