I’ve been painting kindness rocks and seashells for over 20+ years. It’s an affordable hobby that allows me to be creative and helps to reduce stress in my life. Let’s face it…we all need less stress in our lives! Today I’m going to share with you several of my hand painted heart and love designs that you can easily reproduce onto your own river rocks and seashells.
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First things first. You need to make sure your river rocks and seashells are clean! I like to wash them with Dawn Liquid Dishwashing Soap. Dawn does a great job at removing dirt, sand, debris and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water and let them air dry overnight.
Base Coat – I like to base coat all of them with 1-2 coats of white acrylic craft paint. You’ll need to allow 30 minutes of drying time between coats. I do this so that when I apply colors on top…the colors will really “POP”. I like vivid colors!!!
You don’t need any patterns or templates for these designs. Simply sketch onto the surface (lightly) using a pencil. I used BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers to color-in all of the designs. I then used fine-tip Tooli-Art Acrylic Paint Markers to outline and write my words. Make sure that the paint is dry before moving from one step to the next to prevent paint from smearing. You can paint just one side or both sides with a fancy design…entirely up to you.
Once you have all of the design work completed you need to seal them. You can do that one of two different ways:
* Clear Acrylic Spray Sealer – Spray on 1-2 light coats of sealer. This will need to be done outside on a decent weather day.
* Clear Mod Podge Sealer – Brush on 1-2 light coats of sealer. You can do this inside. It goes on white but dries crystal clear. I prefer using the Mod Podge.
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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