Every year I put up a 6 foot tall Christmas tree that is decorated from top to bottom with coastal beach style holiday ornaments. The majority of them were store bought, but others were handmade by me over the years. I wanted to add icicles to my tree but wanted them to work with my coastal theme. Well, here’s what I came up with!

These spiral seashell icicile Christmas tree ornaments took me a weekend to make a set of 12. They’re easy to make! You can find a bag of spiral shells at your local craft supply store or check out Dollar General. I found a bag of mixed seashells at DG for $3.00 and used all of the spirals that were in it.

You’ll base coat the shells with white acrylic craft paint. Each one took 2-3 coats of paint with 35-45 minutes of drying time between coats. I did paint a few of them in a metallic turquoise color since that is the color I like to use on my tree too. Let them dry until paint is no longer tacky.

I used a clear acrylic paint that contained micro-fine silver glitter on top of the white paint…again using 2 coats with 35-45 minutes of drying time between coats. Let dry until no longer tacky. The glitter added the sparkly pizzazz that they needed.

Take them outside and spray them with 1-2 coats of clear acrylic spray sealer in a glossy finish. It will take them 2-3 hours to dry depending on your weather. To finish them up…cut a 6″ long piece of clear fishing line. Knot the 2 ends together to form a hanging loop. Use a hot glue gun to glue the loop inside the open swirl of the seashell. Let the glue set until firm. That’s it, they’re ready for hanging!

For photo-taking purposes I hung them on my light-up beaded tree until I get my Christmas tree down from the attic and set-up. I think they turned out beautifully!

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We have several readers who have been loving our hand-painted clam shell and seashell designs that we’ve been featuring the past 3 years. Painting on seashells is an affordable hobby that allows anyone to be creative. You don’t have to be a professional artist to make the designs that we feature! They can be easily completed by older children, teens, adults and senior.

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Today we’re sharing two different Christmas Reindeer designs that were hand painted onto clam shells. We used 3″ to 4″ wide clam shells collected from the beach. Wash them in warm, soapy water using Dawn Liquid Dish Soap. Why Dawn? It does the best job at removing sand, debris, and fishy odors. Rinse with clean water. Air dry for 1-2 days.

Design 1 – Base coat the shell with 2 coats of a bronze metallic acrylic paint. Allow for 40 minutes of drying time between coats.

Design 2 – Base coat the shell with 2 coats of a light brown acrylic craft paint. Allow for 40 minutes of drying time between coats.

All of the design work on each shell was done using BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers. They’re not regular markers! They contain acrylic paint. Each marker is dual-top (a medium tip and a fine tip). They require no priming, no drippy messes and no clogging. They’re may favorite!

Refer to the photographs to add the facial features and antlers using the BETEM Acrylic Paint Markers. When layering one color ontop of another color allow for 20 minutes of drying time (example would be the eyes). Do the white portion first, then the black or blue color and then finish up with the white inner dot. Allow all of the paint to thoroughly dry.

Protect the painted surface by coating each shell with 2 coats of Clear Mod Podge Sealer in a Glossy Finish. Allow for 30-45 minutes of drying time between coats. Then let them dry overnight. It protects the painted finish from chipping, cracking and the colors from fading.

* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!