Hand Painted Seashell with Christmas Tree

You typically wouldn’t think of seashells being part of your Christmas and holiday decorating decor. However, there are millions of people around the world who decorate in a coastal & beach theme who love decorating with them during the holidays. That would include ME!!!

Over the past 5-6 years I’ve shared hundreds of different craft projects on the blog that use seashells and today…I’m going to show you a fun design that my 15 year old granddaughter made for me. It’s really easy-to-make! A great little project for the kids.

The design is painted on a large 5″ wide clam seashell that we collected from the beach. You’ll want to wash them in warm, soapy water (we like using Dawn dish soap), rinse and let them thoroughly air dry. All of the salt, fishy smells and sand needs to be removed before using them.

You can base coat the clam shell with whatever color that you would like. She used a dark pinky coral color. You’ll need 2-3 coats of paint, allowing 30 minutes of drying time between each coat.

For the Christmas tree she made a simple green triangle using 2 coats of paint. For the trunk she made a brown rectangle shape. Let your tree thoroughly dry. She used bottled acrylic paints and a paint brush.

To decorate the tree she used acrylic paint markers that I purchased from Amazon. She added simple polka dots to the tree to resemble the holiday lights. A yellow paint pen for the star shaped tree topper finished off the tree. You could definitely get more elaborate by adding ornaments and a garland.  To finish up the design on the seashell she used a teal green paint marker to make dots that run around the perimeter of the shell.

On the under-side of the seashell she signed it and dated it which was a nice tough, especially if you’re gifting them.

To protect the painted surface you want to take them outside and spray them with 2 coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. We used one that gives it a glossy finish. A really nice shine!!!

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