Handpainted Sand Dollar Holiday Ornaments

I decorate my home primarily in a beach and coastal theme. This year we decided to put up an extra Christmas tree and did it in a coastal and beach theme. It stands 5 foot tall and is pre-lit. We really love the slender shape to this artificial tree and it looks very real.

For the past few years I have been purchasing coastal and beach ornaments and finally have enough to decorate a full tree. Although its not as "full" as I would like, I am sure between now and this time next year...I will accumulate even more coastal ornaments.

A friend of mine does a lot of hand painting and is a great artist! She took some genuine sand dollars and handpainted beach scenes onto them for me. She did a fabulous job and I like how she did the painted design across the entire front of each 4" to 5" diameter sand dollar. I am not a great decorative painter but as you can see...she is!

For those of you who are talented in the decorative painting arena...I am sure you can get some ideas from the two sand dollar ornaments that my friend Jill made for me. Now I did show her a few of my vacation photos from back in 2006 to give her some ideas on what design I would like and she did a great job at figuring that all out.

Each ornament has a satin ribbon to hang it up onto the tree and she does have a clear protective coating painted over the top of each sand dollar to protect the painted surface from chips and scratches. Cute, Cute, Cute!

So for those of you who have access to some sand dollars and who can do some decorative painting, these would be a great project for you to do. Enjoy!