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!