Love celestial symbols? If so, you’ll love these hand-painted Sun and Moon designs clam shells seashells. These designs are easy to make and don’t require any templates or patterns. You’ll need 3″ to 5″ wide clam shells, acrylic craft paint, paint brush, Mod Podge Sealer and metallic star shaped confetti to make them. You can paint several of them in one weekend!

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These designs were made for an upcoming teenager’s birthday party as party favors and table-top decorations. 10 in total were painted onto 4-5″ wide clam shells. You can certainly use smaller ones if desired.

Moon Design – Base coat the clam shell with 2 coats of black acrylic craft paint. Allow for 40 minutes of drying time between coats. Next it’s time to add the bright yellow quarter moon shape along the pointy edge of the clam shell. Use the photograph for referance. I had to use 2 coats of yellow paint. Let dry.

Next…time to add the facial features. To make the indents around the nose and mouth you’ll want to use a fine liner paint brush and black acrylic craft paint. Let dry.

Brush-on a coat of Clear Glossy Mod Podge Sealer over the entire painted surface of the seashell. While the Mod Podge is still very wet…place metallic glitter stars into it. I used gold metallic star-shaped confetti. Let everything dry for 2-3 hours.

Sun and Moon Design – Base coat the clam shell in your 2 desired colors. For the one shown in the photograph I used a country blue and a lavendar color. You may need to use 2 coats of paint to get the desired coverage with 30-40 minutes of drying time between coats.

Use a pencil to lightly draw a circle in the center of the seashell. Then the triangular-shaped sun rays. Sketch the middle facial area to separate the moon/sun faces. You can use similar paint colors that I used or come up with your own color combinations. Paint the moon and sun. Let dry. Once dry you want to use black to dot around the edges and for the facial features. For the dotting I used the end of a round wooden toothpick dipped into acrylic craft paint. Same for the border running around the edge of the clam shell. Let dry.

Brush-on a coat of Clear Glossy Mod Podge Sealer over the entire painted surface of the clam shell. If you want to display it outside…I recommend adding two coats of the sealer on the front and back of the seashell. Let dry.

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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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