Santa Shell Ornament
3 Materials
Living in a coastal city means that there is always the opportunity to go to the beach and collect shells. This year, I’m making several differently styled ornaments using shells collected at Folly Beach, SC.
Making this Santa Shell Ornament was an easy and fun DIY ornament. I started by sorting through a bunch of shells and selecting the ones that I wanted to us. These shells were dead, so cleaning them up was easy. I don’t like to use bleach, so I cleaned them by soaking them in Palmolive Liquid Dish Soap for about an hour. Using a lint free cloth, I dried them and left them to sit out to completely dry.
I gave the shells I wanted to use for my Santa Ornament two coats of white acrylic paint and let them dry.
Once it was dry, I used red acrylic paint for the hat and peach paint for the face.
I added eyes, a nose and lips using black, gold and red paint. The finishing touch was to attach a pearl bead using hot glue.
This was such a simple ornament and it’s one that anyone can make with some some paint!
I'm using collected shells for several differently styled ornaments this year. I'll be sharing more soon. To see more of this Santa ornament, please click on the link below.
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 176 comments
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Cute idea, I love in TO on the coast so I have used shells for many crafts. In order to hang the ornament prior to painting you could put the shell on a very wet shell (the inside of the shell up) then pour water in the shell then use a titanium not and your trusty drill to make a whole. The concept is a little like that of a set saw, the water helps meet the dust from the shell from going everyday and keeps the drill bit from getting too hot.
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I'm going to do this project with my granddaughter I think she will enjoy it!
Frequently asked questions
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Does the acrylic paint stay on pretty well? I am wondering if it flakes off.
I just want to say, I was gifted a ton of shells from a friend. Good way to use them. What other things can I paint? On them please?