Are you a dog lover or know someone who is? Work with a rescue group or need a little gift for a vet or vet tech in your life? If you answered YES to any of those questions…we’ve got the perfect art and crafts project for you today. These hand painted clam shells all feature simple dog designs! Once completed you can use them as a paper weight on a desk, a home decor accent or place them outside in a flower garden to add a pop of color. 

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We collected medium and large sized clam shells from the beach measuring 4-5″ wide in size. Wash the seashells in warm soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Dawn does the best job at removing sand, debris and fishy odors. Rinse with clean tap water. Let them air dry overnight.

Pampered Pooch Design – Base coat the shell with 2 coats of navy blue acrylic craft paint allowing for 45 minutes of drying time between coats. Once the paint is dry…use a Tooli-Art Acrylic Paint Marker in white to write out the words Pampered Pooch, to add the white heart, bone and paw print. Once dry, outline the letters and items using a black colored Tooli-Art Acrylic Paint Marker. Let dry for several hours until the paint is no longer tacky.

Rescued and Loved Design – Base coat the shell with 2 coats of white acrylic craft paint allowing for 45 minutes of drying time between coats. Once the paint is dry…use a set of BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers to write out the words, add the arrow with heart and the paw prints. Use the gold metallic paint marker to outline the seashell. Use the black paint marker to outline the letters in the words. Let dry for a few hours or until the paint is no longer tacky.

Finishing the Shells – You need to seal the design work and paint by covering it with a clear sealer. You can brush-on 1-2 light coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer with a Glossy Finish or spray-on 1-2 light coats of a Clear Acrylic Spray Sealer. Let dry overnight. This will protect the painted finish…allow the seashells to be displayed inside or outside of the home.

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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I’ve been hand-painting on seashells for over 20+ years. When I first started out I would just paint them solid colors or a very simple stripe or polka dot pattern. Over the years I’ve learned to do better designs that really stand out. If you enjoy crafting with seashells you’ll find over 200+ craft projects right here on the TCC blog. All of them are easy to make!

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My grandchildren love music. My granddaughter plays the violin and my grandson plays the guitar. Each grandchild wanted me to paint a music themed seashell for them to give to their music teacher. I decided to do a simple piano keyboard as you see in the photograph. The design is painted on a 4″ and 4 1/2″ wide clam shell.

To get started you need to base coat each shell with 1-2 coats of white acrylic craft paint. Allow 30 minutes of drying time between coats. Use a pencil to drawn a line horizontally through half of the shell. From there…draw vertical lines down which will serve as the piano keys. Paint the top half of the seashell with your desired color. I used metallic gold on one and green on the other. Let dry.

Tooli-Art makes the best fine tip paint markers that I’ve used. Using the black colored fine tip paint marker I added the music notes to the top half. Then using the same Tooli-Art Black Fine Tip Paint Marker I colored in and outlined the piano keys. You can do a simple design (like mine) or get more elaborate if you have the artistic skills. Let all of the paint dry for a few hours.

Once dry….you need to seal the design to protect the painted finish. I brushed-on two coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer with a glossy finish. It goes on white but dries crystal clear. This will protect the paint from chips, cracks and color-fading. Well worth the extra step. Let everything dry overnight.

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