Mickey Mouse Seashell Birthday Party Favors

A friend of mine is hosting a birthday party for her 4 year old son in a few weeks. The theme for his party is Disney's Mickey and Minnie Mouse. She asked me to help her make some decorations and unique party favors for the upcoming event.

We decided to paint some seashells that feature an image of Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse on the front. We're NOT artists, so we needed the design to be easy to paint. This is what we came up with and guess what? You can whip up several of them in one afternoon! Plus, they don't cost a lot of money to make.

You will need to collect large clam seashells from the beach. Wash and thoroughly dry them. Base coat each one with 2 coats of red acrylic craft paint. If you're making several of them to use as party favors...do it in an assembly line fashion. After they're all dry...move on to the next part.

Use Google to find a FREE Mickey Mouse (head) image. We found one that we liked, re-sized it, printed it out and used scissors to cut it out....use this as your template. Place it onto the shell and use a black Sharpie Marker to trace around it.

You'll need 2 coats of black acrylic craft paint to fill in the image, allowing 15-20 minutes of drying time between each coat of paint. You can use a Sharpie Marker to add a child's name, birth day, or other wordage onto the shell. Let everything dry.

Take them outside and spray them with a coat of clear acrylic spray sealer. We used a glossy-finish, but you can certainly use a matte finish. Let them dry for several hours. This is a project that the kids can do too!

Pallet Wood Seashell Covered Seahorse Wall Art

Last month I made this adorable seashell covered seahorse by using pallet wood and seashells that I've collected from the beach. It stands a little over 2 foot tall and is now hanging on the wall in our sun room. It took my husband one afternoon to do the wood portion and it took me 3 days to do the seashells.

If you're interested in learning how I made it along with assembly tips you'll want to check out my post over on my other blog TwoClassyChics.com. The Coastal Craft: Seashell Covered Seahorse Wall Art has become one of my most popular posts over on the blog, so I wanted to mention it over here too.

Living at the beach or traveling to the beach often has its perks! I used over 250+ shells to make it. You'll need to collect a lot of tiny, small and medium-sized seashells if you plan on making one. The pallet wood was FREE (hubby gets those at work, brings them home, tears them a part) and we use them in various craft and landscaping projects around our home.

I love the coastal and beach lifestyle, so I'm always making new projects that work with that home decor theme. Since completing the seahorse, I'm already working on a dolphin, whale and mermaid tail one too. They're easy to make, but do take several days to complete. My only expense was a few nails, screws, wood glue, E6000 adhesive glue, clear acrylic spray sealer and a sawtooth hanger on the back so that I could hang it up. That's about it!

Kid's Crafts Painted Seashells Beach Vacation Memories

This past June we took both of our grandchildren down to the beach for summer vacation. The kids enjoy playing in the sand, jumping waves in the ocean and collecting seashells from the beach. Over the years I've taught them to ONLY collect the un-occupied shells and to put occupied shells back onto the beach.

Like most kids...they love collecting seashells and when we got home we had 3 bags of shells that we could use for crafting and home decorating. We decided to paint on a few of the larger clam shells that we collected that measure at least 5" in width. Before you paint on them you'll want to wash them really well with liquid dish soap and water. Let them dry for out in the sunshine until completely dry. It's important to remove the debris, sand, and the smell.

You can use acrylic craft paints and paint brushes or you can use acrylic paint pens or markers. My 10 year old granddaughter made the one shown in the photograph using ONLY acrylic paint pens that we purchased from Amazon. They're great if you want a no-mess craft project to do with the kids, plus they dry quickly.

The Princess painted a beach scene featuring glistening, golden, sandy beach, waves crashing onshore, the Atlantic Ocean in the background with sea gulls flying above. I think she did a really nice job! On the back of the shell she wrote her name and the date. To protect the painted design we sprayed them with 2 coats of clear acrylic spray sealer and left them dry overnight.

Painting on seashells that you collected while on vacation is a great way for children to preserve those beach vacation memories. Plus, it's a frugal craft and will cost you less than 50 cents to make (paint supplies), since the seashells are free!