These hand painted M & M Candy themed seashells are super cute and easy-to-make. We painted dozen of them to use as little party favors at my nephews birthday party. You’ll need 2 1/2″ to 3 1/2″ wide clam shells collected from the beach, acrylic craft paints, paint brushes, acrylic paint markers and a glossy clear sealer. Below you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to make them.
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Wash all seashells in Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Why Dawn? It does the best job at removing sand, debris and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water and let them dry overnight.
Base coat each clam shell with 2 coats of acrylic craft paint using a paint brush in your desired color. We used red, blue, yellow and green. Let dry.
To do the rest of the design work we used BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers which feature dual ended tips. One tip is a medium tip and the other is a fine tip. We used the medium tip to do the dark brown candy area. Then outline that area using the fine tip with white and black colors.
Next…do the facial features. You want them to look sad, surprised or grumpy because “someone” bit into them. Use our photograph as a guide but feel free to come up with your own too. We used the fine tip on the Betem Acrylic Paint Markers to do the facial features. At the bottom of each one use the white paint marker (fine tip) to add the letter M. Let dry for 2-3 hours or until the paint is no longer tacky.
Seal the painted surface by brushing on 1-2 light coats of Glossy Clear Mod Podge Sealer allowing for 30 minutes of drying time between coats. This will protect the paint from chipping, cracking and the colors from fading. Plus, adds a nice glossy shine! Let dry overnight.
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