Seashell Letter II

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a tutorial to make a seashell letter. I really love the way it turned out but after looking at it for a couple of days, I realized that I didn't love all the different colors in it.

So crossing my fingers, I broke out a can of white spray paint and hoped for the best. Sorry, I didn't take new pictures throughout the process because I really expected a disaster and I had no idea what I was going to do. First I sprayed the enter thing white. 3 coats later, I took a metallic champagne acrylic paint and a metallic white pearl acrylic paint and picked out individual shells to paint. I left some of the shells a flat white for added dimension. And the results..


Much much better! If I had a beach nearby I could have picked out my own shells (saving me lots of trouble.) Overall this project cost me less then $10 dollars, including the letter, shells, spray paint and acrylic paint.

Here was the before picture:

Seashell Letter Tutorial

I've started redecorating our bathroom and I've chosen a beachy-nautical theme. I've literally just started decorating, the only thing I've done is changed out the shower curtain (what a difference a new shower curtain can make!) Today I wanted to share a tutorial on making your own seashell letter. It's a super easy, inexpensive and fun project with lots of possibilities!


Materials:
Seashells-a good mix of large, medium and small
Acrylic paint & a paint brush
Letter-I used a chip board letter that I got it on sale for .99 cents! A wood one would also do the trick
Glue gun
Optional: pearls, gemstones, rocks, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Choose seashells to match your decor. I just chose a multicolored bunch but we will see how they end of matching everything else.



Paint your letter with the acrylic paint, make sure to get the edges. As you can see, I wasn't too worried about making it smooth and even. Most of the letter will be covered up by shells anyway. Let the paint dry for overnight (or at least several hours if you are impatient like me.)


Before gluing, layout your shells. Start with the large ones. These were the only ones I laid out before I started to glue.


Fill in the empty spots with the little shells, pearls, or gemstones.

And it's done! These look great hanging on the wall or sitting on a shelf. I'm not sure where mine will end up but I'm excited to put it in the bathroom!