A few months ago I was at a local flea market and got a box full of vintage paper doilies in Christmas and holiday designs. They were round shaped doilies with scallop edges. Very pretty paper doilies and roughly 25 years old. I purchased the entire box full of 125 doilies for $1.00. Wow, what a bargain!
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When I purchased them I thought I would use them to make handmade greeting cards or in a few scrapbooking layouts. However, that all changed two weeks ago. I decided to use them in decoupage art when making my Christmas themed seashells. I like to use them as table favors and holiday decorations. Yes, I decorate my home in a coastal beach style, including during the holiday season.
During the holidays we host a few parties at our home and I’m always looking for unique place settings. These Decoupage Seashells work with my theme perfectly. They would be great for beach & coastal weddings too…but using a different paper napkin or doilies for the design work. What’s really cool is you can use an Acrylic Paint Pen Marker to write a name, date or message on the back (underside) of each clam shell.
For this project I used large 4″ wide clam shells that I collected from the beach. Wash and dry them. They need to be thoroughly dry before painting on them.
Base coat the clam shells in your desired colors. I painted some white, red and green for the background colors. You will need to use 2 coats of acrylic craft paint with 40 minutes of drying time between coats.
While the shells are drying prepare the paper doilies. I carefully cut around the parts of the images that I wanted to use. Make sure they are sized well for the size of seashells that you’re using. You don’t want the image too small or too large.
You’ll need a bottle of Modge Podge Sealer in a Glossy Finish and a foam brush. Brush a light coat of Modge Podge across the top of the shell. Carefully lay the cut-out image on top. Press down with your fingers to smooth it out. You don’t want any wrinkles or air bubbles. Use the foam brush to apply another layer of Modge Podge across the top of the image and cover the entire top of the shell. Let dry for 60-90 minutes.
Flip the shells over once they’re done drying and personalize them with names, dates, quotes, etc. As I stated, I’m using the ones that I made as place settings on the tables for 3 dinners that we’re hosting this holiday season.
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The dollies you found are beautiful and they look great on the shells, I can see them during the holidays v=being used for favors, etc.