Mini Coastal Seashell Star Wall Art + Ornament Tutorial

If you’ve been to the craft stores, you know that Halloween, Fall, and Christmas items are already on the shelves -eek! I’m still in summer mode and kind of hate the early push into fall/winter stuff, but seeing all the goodies made me think about how I could carry over my love of the summer coastal look into the fall/winter season.

Mini Coastal Seashell Star Wall Art + Ornament Tutorial

Supplies:

4″x 4″ mini linen or burlap canvas
1/4″ balsa craft wood
acrylic off white paint or white chalk paint, mixed with acrylic coffee latte paint
wide flat paint brush
small paint brush (optional)
bag of small shells
craft glue
mini eye hooks (optional)
twine (optional)
gray watercolor or watered down gray acrylic paint
star pattern or 3 1/4″ star cookie cutter
Craft saw or sharp Exacto knife
white pencil
clear acrylic spray (optional)

Directions:

Dry paint the canvas with an off white color paint (I used what I had and mixed white chalk paint with a bit of acrylic coffee latte to get an off white color.). To achieve this look, load your brush with paint and remove a good amount by brushing it with on a separate piece of paper before brushing the canvas. Let the canvas dry.

Use a star cookie cutter and trace an outline of the star onto the painted canvas (find patterns on the internet). You can also opt to paint inside the star, but this isn’t necessary.

Flood small sections of the star with craft glue. Carefully place shells into the glue.

Tip:

Use the pointed shells for the star tips.
Use broken shells to fill in tiny spaces.

Cut the balsa wood to create a frame that fits onto the front edge of the canvas. For a beach washed wood look, use a gray watercolor or watered down gray acrylic paint to paint each frame piece. Let dry. Glue the frame down to the front edge of the canvas. Let dry. Optional – spray the entire piece with a coat of clear acrylic spray. Let dry.

Tip: Each canvas seems to have a slightly different measurement due the linen wrap. If doing multiple canvases, it’s best to measure each wood frame to each individual canvas.

Optional – If you want to hang this on the wall or use as an ornament, screw in eye hooks into the ends of the frame for hanging. Tie on a twine hanger. If using on a shelf, you can skip the eyehooks and twine.