Mother’s Day is just around the corner and my 13 year old granddaughter wanted to paint a seashell for her Mom to place on her desk at work. She decided to make her a paper weight and it turned out nicely. For this project you’ll need a large 5″ wide clam seashell. It needs to be semi-weighty too. You can use other type’s of seashells for this project too.

Make sure you thoroughly wash the shell in soapy hot water. We like to use Dawn liquid dish soap. It does a great job at removing sandy, debris, and fishy odors. Let the shells air dry for 2-3 days before painting on them.

Granddaughter came up with her own design of various colored hearts the universal symbol for love. She based coated the shell with 3 coats of light pink acrylic craft paint. Allow for 20-30 minutes of drying time between each coat.

You want to start with the red heart first. Once it dries paint a white heart over the top, leaving some of the red heart showing. Let it dry. Then paint a pink heart in the center, letting some of the white heart show through. See photograph. Let dry. Dip the end of the paint brush into purple paint and dot on polka dots on the center heart. Use the paint brush to paint purple hearts all around the shell. You could easily use an acrylic paint pen to do this too. Let dry

Take the dry shell outside. Spray it with 2 coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. We used one with a semi-glossy finish to it. You’ll need to let it dry for 3-4 hours or until it’s no longer tacky. This will protect the painted finish from chipping and cracking.

These painted seashells look great when used as paper weights, sitting in a flower or garden bed, displayed on a shelf, etc. Children can come up with their own designs and color schemes. This design would be a nice one for Valentine’s Day too! Very easy project for kids to complete and it doesn’t cost a fortune!

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