20 Painted Sea Shell Designs

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Have you ever tried painting sea shells? Sea Shell painting is such a relaxing activity and it’s easy to do with the right supplies. Even if you don’t have your own collection of shells to paint, there are many places you can buy plain shells, including online. See below for some supply recommendations, great places to purchase shells and some colorful painted shells for painted sea shell inspiration.

Painted Sea Shell Supplies

Shells – If you don’t have a collection of your own, you can find some shells online or at a craft store.
- Shells for crafts
- Sand dollars for crafts
Acrylic Paint – The best paint to use for painting shells is acrylic paint. Here are some great acrylic paints to try:
Paint Markers
Dotting Tools for making perfect round circles with paint.
Paint Brushes

Colorful Painted Sea Shell Inspiration

If you’re looking for idea on what you paint on shells – I’ve got you covered. These designs are bright, colorful, and super unique. Perfect if you’ve got some sea shells laying around waiting to be used for a craft project.

Tropical Painted Shell

Large Painted Sea Shell by Addison Kanoelani. I like the tropical colors with the palm tree silhouettes on this one.

Dot Painted Sea Shell

Dot Painted Sea Shell. The dot painting design would be easy to recreate if you used a dotting tool.

Tie Dye Sea Shells

This colorful design was easy to make using sharpies. Check out my tutorial to make them yourself: Tie Dye Shells using Sharpies – Color Made Happy

Galaxy Painted Shell

Ocean Galaxy Painted Shell by Addison Kanoelani. I love galaxy paintings on anything – but this painted sea shell design is really cool.

Colorful Painted Seashell Design

Markers on Rocks by Color Made Happy- I used these awesome alcohol brush markers.

Purple Painted Shell

This Purple Painted Shell adds gold, blue, pink, and white accents for a unique seashell pattern painting idea.

Puffy Paint Shells

Puffy Paint Sea Shells – Color Made Happy It’s no secret that I love crafting with puffy paint! These shell designs were really easy to do and turned out bright and colorful.

Whale Painted on a Sea Shell

Whale Painted Sea Shell – This is a unique idea if you want to paint a picture rather than design on your sea shell.

Purple and Pink Seashells

Purple Painted Shells. These designs use the shape of the seashells as the guide to make cool purple, purple, white, and gold patterns.

Silhouette Painted Seashells

These Blue Silhouette Decorated Shells are another great example of painting something unique on seashells! First paint the base colors, the add the silhouettes in black once they dry.

Sea Shells Painted With Alcohol Ink

I used alcohol ink to make these unique and colorful sea shell design. Try it yourself: Alcohol Ink Painted Sea Shells – Color Made Happy

Rainbow Painted Shells

This is a great easy sea shell painting idea: rainbow painted shells!

Galaxy Sunset Painted Sea Shell

This gorgeous painted sea shell is meant to look like a sunset. So cool!

Easy Polka Dot Painted Seashells

Polka Dot Painted Sea Shells are a super easy shell painting idea!

Painted Sand Dollars

Painted Sand Dollars are another idea if you want to paint some of your beach finds – their shape makes for a really cool canvas to try out unique designs.

Colorful Pink and Gold Painted Shells

These Pink Painted Shells are made up of a bunch of patterns. I love how they used the shell’s unique shape to add to the designs.

Ocean Painted Conch Shell

Ocean Painted Shell – Katie Brooks Art used a large conch shell to paint this amazing ocean scene. Now you can hear the ocean… And see it too!

Assorted Blue Painted Shells

So many ideas for Blue Painted Shells here! I can’t decide which one I like best.

Painted Mussel Shells

These Painted Mussel Shells – by RemsStoneArt prove that you can make any shells you find on the beach beautiful.

Floral Shell Painting Idea

Flower Painted Shells by Rock Garden Art – these shells have beautiful floral patterns on them. If you don’t have a white shell you can always paint a white base coat first if you want to recreated these flower painted shells.