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Santa Shell Ornament

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Use collected sea shells for fun Christmas Ornaments. Paint a simple Santa Shell Ornament for a coastal tree.

Santa Shell Ornament with paint

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.  I’ve seen Santa Shell Ornaments before and I wanted to give making a few of them a try. 

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 purchased red, white and gold acrylic paint and a bag of pearl beads for the sea shell ornaments.

Shells for ornaments

I chose one of the large ones for the ornament. I gave it two coats of white acrylic paint and let it dry.

shell for ornament

Once it was dry, I used red acrylic paint for the hat and peach paint for the face.

santa shell ornament

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.

Santa Shell Ornament painted

This was such a simple ornament and it’s one that anyone can make. I added a small piece of wire to the inside and hot glued it in place to hang the ornament.

Santa Shell Ornament on tree

Materials Used For Santa Shell Ornament:

  • Sea Shell
  • White, Red, Peach, Black, and Gold Paint
  • Brushes
  • Bead
  • Hot Glue
DIY Santa Shell Christmas Ornament~ A fun way to use collected shells for Christmas! Click To Tweet

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Santa Shell Ornament DIY

Santa Shell Ornament DIY
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Comments

    • Beverly says

      Thanks, Erlene! I’ve seen some similar ones on Pinterest over the years, but this is the first time I’ve tried it. It was a fun little ornament to make. Thank you for putting the ornament exchange together again this year. It looks like it’s going great!

      Reply

  10. Cucicucicoo: Eco Sewing and Crafting says

    So cute! This would be such a great idea to do with kids and I already have a bunch of scallop shells that would be perfect! As for the hanger, couldn’t you just hot glue a loop of red ribbon to the top inside of the shell, just under the curved part? Thanks for sharing the tute! 🙂 Lisa

    Reply

    • Beverly says

      Thanks! Yes, it would be a fun project for kids. I tried using a ribbon that way, but the larger shells are a bit to heavy for that and they droop. I think some thicker ribbon might work.

      Reply

  11. Ann says

    I love this and am very excited to make them!! Thank you for such a cute and inexpensive idea!! May try to attach them to a ring and use them as napkin rings on my Christmas tables!!

    Reply

    • Beverly says

      Thank you, Ann. They would make wonderful napkin rings. I’ve made napkin rings from this type of shell to go with a coastal tablescape. They would be fun for Christmas, too.

      Reply

  17. Melissa says

    Living near the beach I also like to add a little coastal decor to Christmas . This is such a cute and fun project . Thanks for sharing at the family joy blog link party this week ! !

    Reply

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