Last week I started putting out a few of my Autumn and Halloween home decor items along with a few things out in our front yard. We will be adding more items next weekend to get ready for the season. One thing I decided to add to our Autumn and Halloween decor this year were hand-painted clam shells. I painted the designs on large 5″ wide clam shells seashells and have them on our front porch for guests to see. They look cool lining our steps up to the front door.
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If you don’t have access to large clam shells you can certainly paint the designs on smooth river rocks too. I didn’t use any templates or patterns. If you feel you’re not artistic…you can apply scrapbooking embellishments onto the seashells. I’ll explain both methods below.
First…wash the seashells in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Dawn is fantastic at removing sand, debris and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water and air dry overnight.
Base coat all of them in your desired color using acrylic craft paint and a paint brush. I used 2 coats of paint on each one with 45 minutes of drying time between coats.
The pumpkn, scarecrow and spider were all hand-painted. I just lightly sketched out simple shapes and designs onto the shell using a pencil. To keep the painting easy…I used a pack of BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers to color-in the designs. These markers contain acrylic paint (not kiddie markers) and feature dual-ended tips. No priming, no clogged tips, no drippy messes and certainly no foul paint odors. I highly recommend them.
Black Bat seashell that says CREEPY on it was from a pack of Halloween scrapbooking embellishments that I found at a local craft store. They’re made out of cardstock with self-adhesive backs. I used Gorilla Glue to attach them firmly onto the shells…otherwise they will fall off because the adhesive on them isn’t strong enough.
Once all of the paint and gluing has dried you need to preserve your artistic work. Use a foam brush to brush-on 1-2 light coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer. I used one with a glossy finish. As the sealer dries…it will dry clear. This will protect the painted design and anything you applied to the shells. Let dry overnight.
Note: If you want to add fine glitter onto your seashells you need to sprinkle the glitter on while the Mod Podge is very wet. As it dries…it will adhere the glitter to the shell. I like for our Halloween and Autumn decor to look cutesy, not scary!
If you enjoy painting on seashells or crafting with seashells…you’ll find over 150+ seashell craft projects right here on the Two Classy Chics blog! We will be sharing more seashell craft projects in the future too!
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