Shells. It’s Fun To Paint them.

It’s been waaaaaaay toooo loooong since I sat my bum down, zoned out life and the world, listened to some tunes, and painted some shells.

And I definitely recommend you take some time to paint some too. Because they turned out to be rather rad.

So, here are the tools and directions for what I did with these beauties.

Tools: Shells, Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground, watercolors, Posca acrylic paint pens, Modge Podge.

1: Grab some shells – Big or small they all work, and if you don’t live somewhere where you can easily find shells, you can buy them on amazon.

2: If you want to watercolor the inside of them, pick up some Daniel Smith Watercolor ground and paint a few coats to prime the surface for watercolor.

3: On the other side of the shell, I used Posca Paint pens. Which, it turns out, are super useful in so many things (ahem nail art, and painting shoes or denim.)

4: So go in and use those acrylic paint pens to decorate the front of the shell – I like to use the shell’s natural shape and markings as my guide and just kind of enhance it a little bit.

5: Then after that dries, go in and watercolor the back of the shell that you primed, let that dry, then have fun with the paint pens on top of the watercolor. That extra step gives it a cool effect for sure.

6: Feel free to get sidetracked and paint all over your legs, hands, and wrists too.

7: I haven’t done this final step yet, but coating them with Modge Podge would waterproof them, give it a nice finished look and protect that art. Also makes it a cool gift or jewelry holder, or who knows.

So many options.

So much zen crafting time.

Shell yeah.

With a side of paint.

More shell art aqui.