Halloween is just around the corner and it’s time to add some new decorations to your holiday decor. These hand painted clam shells are easy-to-make and can be made in just one weekend. You only need handful of art and craft supplies to make them. Don’t have access to clam shells? You can do these same designs on smooth river rocks too!
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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Wash all seashells in warm, soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Rinse with clean water and air dry overnight. I recommend Dawn because it does a great job at removing sand, debris and fishy odors.
You’ll need various bottles of acrylic craft paint, paint brushes, a set of acrylic paint markers, Mod Podge Clear Sealer, a foam brush and glitter.
Time to base coat all of the shells with acrylic paint. You’ll need to 1-2 base coats to get really nice coverage with 30-35 minutes of drying time between coats.
Pumpkin gets an orange base coat, the sugar skull gets white and the spider and ghost get black. Let fully dry.
Decorating them is easy! I used a set of BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers to do all of the design work. I used a pencil to lightly sketch on the design that I wanted. Then got busy decorating them. BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers are fantastic to work with. No priming, no drippy messes, no clogged tips and no foul paint odors. They have dual-ended tips (one medium and one fine).
Use the paint markers to add the facial features onto the pumpkins along with the stem. Then used them to do the rest of the clam shells using the photograph for referrence. You can do simple designs like I did or get fancy if you have artistic talent which I do not! Let all of the paint dry.
Seal all of your painted seashells by brushing on 1-2 coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer with a Glossy Finish. Matte works well too, but I prefer the gloss! It adds a nice shine. Let them dry overnight.
Tip: If you want to add fine craft glitter onto any of your designs you want to sprinkle it on while the Mod Podge is very wet. I sprinkled glitter onto the body of the spitter.
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