These hand painted clam shell seashells were inspired by tribal style art. They’re very easy to make and you don’t need to be a professional artist to make them. You’ll need regular acrylic craft paint, a paint brush and a pack of acrylic paint pen markers. The artwork can be painted onto clam shells, oyster shells, whelk shells, razor clams and onto smooth river rocks.
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Always wash your seashells in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Why Dawn? It does the best job at removing sand, debris and fishy odors. I let them soak in the water for about 30 minutes and then rinse clean. Lay them out on a towel to air dry overnight.
I like to base coat all of the seashells with 1 coat of white paint. You can either spray it on or brush it on. Once dry, use a pencil to section the shell off in 4-5 sections that are shaped like an arc. Next, decide on 3-5 colors that you want to work with to decorate it. Pick complimentary colors for the best look. The exception to the minimum 3 colors rule is if you’re going to do one like the black and metallic silver one that I did.
Each of the arc sections need to be done with different colors or patterns (see photograph). For all of the design work I used a pack of Acrylic Paint Pen Markers. The ones that I use have a medium tip on one end and a fine tip on the other end. No priming is needed, no dripping messes and no leakage. The best thing about using the BETEM Acrylic Paint Pen Markers is that there’s no foul painting odors either!!! I purchase them from Amazon.
After you’re done decorating the seashells you need to let them dry for 2-3 hours to allow the paint to “cure”. Once dry take a foam brush and brush-on 2 coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer in a Glossy Finish. This will seal the paint and prevent it from easily chipping and the colors from fading. Plus, you can now display the painted shells outside.
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