Finding only broken clam shells on the beach? Have a lot of medium-sized and large-sized broken clam shells in your collection? If so, you can still use them! Turn them into pretty works of art to decorate your home, outside gardens or for kidness shells and rock drops! All these designs are easy-to-make and are a great way to utilize those broken shells. To accent them we painted tiny clam shells to look like lady bugs and bumble bees.
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You’ll need medium and large broken clam shells. The ones we used for this project contained at least half of the shell. Wash all shells in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Dawn is the best at removing debris, sand and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water. Let them air dry overnight.
Base coat all of the shells in 1-2 coats of acrylic craft paint in your desired color. While they large ones are drying work on the smaller clam shells by painting them to look like lady bugs and bumble bees. If you want to keep the painting EASY use a pack of BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers. The pack that we used features paint markers with dual-ended tips. Use the medium tip to paint-in larger areas and the fine-tip to do outlining, facial features and to write wordage.
Once the paint has dried on the large shells it’s time to decorate. Use a fine-tip paint marker to write your desired wordage. We wrote I’m the Better Half! onto each shell. To adhere one shell to another shell the BEST thing to use is Gorilla Glue or E6000 Adhesive. Don’t use hot glue and a glue gun which doesn’t hold!!! I used Gorilla Glue to attach the lady bugs and bumble bees onto the larger shell. You can add one, two or three! Let the shells dry for 2-4 hours.
Once everything is dry…take the seashells outside. You want to spray both sides of the seashell with 1-2 light coats of a Clear Acrylic Spray Sealer. Allow for 30-45 minutes between coats. Let them dry until they’re no longer tacky. This will protect the painted design.
You can find over 300+ painted seashells and beach crafts right here on the TCC Blog. Check them out while you’re here!