Today’s post is a craft I wouldn’t have normally attempted if I hadn’t been challenged by Kathy of Petticoat Junktion to come up with a project that used seashells (is that right? or is it sea shells”? meh.. whatever.)

Now you all know I went a little “nautical” crazy in the baby’s nursery, but I never used shells anywhere, so this was a real challenge. After brainstorming and brainstorming I came to the realization that I couldn’t come up with anything unique that actually used the shells themselves, but I had a genius idea to use the shells as STAMPS and create a great craft.
Stamping With Sea Shells Tutorial

I tried this technique on both paper (wouldn't it be cool as a greeting card?) and fabric and it worked on both, but I decided on fabric (in the form of a pillow) for this tutorial.

TUTORIAL:

Seashell Stamped (& stenciled) Pillow

Supplies:

Pillow cover: I used a plain white cushion cover from Ikea (GURLI) for a whopping $4!
Clam type shells
Craft or Fabric Paint: I actually used a free sample of chalk paint I had lying around, but if you were going to wash these pillows I’d use fabric paint. (or use the latex paint and fabric medium method I used when I painted my upholstered chair)
Paper towels
Brush
Stencil (this is optional if you want a secondary motif along with the shell stamps. I cut mine out of contact paper with my Silhouette Cameo)

Step 1: Brush the paint onto the entire top side of the shells making sure to wipe of dab off any excess.

You want to make sure the shell is covered, but you don’t want the paint so thick it doesn’t show the texture when you stamp with it. You may want to try some test fabric (I tested on paper towels) before you start so you get a feel for your particular shells.

Step 2: Next press the shells down into the fabric. I had to use quite a bit of pressure and found that actually lifting the fabric and almost wrapping it around the shell worked well so you didn’t have to roll the shell back and forth.

The different sized and patterned shells gave different looks and shapes. It was neat to see what each one looked like.

Step 3: Stencil any accents shapes

Since I didn’t want to fill the entire pillow with shell stamps, I decided to quick cut out a stencil of a starfish from cheap contact paper and use it as the center of the pillow.

I used the same type of paint and dabbed it on with a paper towel

I guess a stenciled starfish technically breaks the ‘shell craft’ rule, but I didn’t want to stencil a giant shell.

Step 5: Heat set the paint if necessary (follow manufacturer's instructions for your paint type)