Seashell Mermaid Purse Craft including a Seashell Template
Little Sister adores all things mermaid. She also loves pretend play and dress up. Since she doesn’t have anything to use for pretending to be a mermaid, we decided to make her a seashell mermaid purse. We are including a free seashell template so you can make one as well!
Have you been following along with the kids craft stars challenges? This month theme is ocean crafts, so be sure to stick around and check out all the amazing ideas linked at the end of this post – including pufferfish, octopus, jellyfish, crabs and more!
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How to make the Seashell Mermaid Purse Craft
Supplies needed
- Seashell Template
- paper lunch bag
- items for decorating such as paint, paintbrushes, glitter, stickers, and so on
- scissors
- glue
- string, yarn, lacing cord, or similar
- jewel gems
- 2 star shaped brads
Print the seashell template 2 times on [computer printer] card stock. Cut around the outline.
Decorate the seashells however you’d like. We used watercolors on ours and also Elmer’s 3D Glitter Pens. I love how sparkly the Elmer’s glitter pens are! Set aside to dry.
Take a brown paper lunch bag and cut it just above the halfway mark. When you’re seashells are dry, glue one on each side of the lunch bag. Open your seashell purse!
You can either keep it like this or add a brad on the sides of the shell. We used star-shaped ones. To do this, line up the seashells and poke a hole through both. Take the brad and push it all the way through. Flatten on the the opposite seashell. Repeat these steps with the other side.
Cut your string or lacing cord to size. We chose green to represent seaweed. I tied the ends around the brads. If not using brads, use a hole punch.
On the top center of each seashell, we glued on a jewel gem. On the side with the flatten brad ends, we placed on foam heart stickers to cover them. It would be fun to decorate the whole purse with stickers, sequins, and so on!
Fill your new seashell mermaid purse with all kinds of mermaid accessories! Some things you may wish to add are sand dollars, jewel gems, starfish, oysters, pearls, and anything else you can think of.
Now Little Sister is ready for a mermaid adventure! Besides this adorable seashell mermaid purse, we plan to make a few more crafty things for her to wear while pretending to be a mermaid or even Ariel.
Kids Craft Stars Challenge: Ocean Crafts
Join us every month for a new crafty challenge. This month’s theme is ocean crafts for kids. Stop back next month for another fun theme!
- Ocean Animal Coffee Filter Suncatcher | A Little Pinch of Perfect
- Bouncy Ball Stamped Pufferfish | Crafty Morning
- Rainbow Fish Handprint Art | Fun Handprint Art
- Paper Plate Crab | Glued To My Crafts Blog
- Suncatcher Jellyfish | I Heart Arts n Crafts
- Puffy Paint Octopus | I Heart Crafty Things
- Cupcake Liner Fish in a Watercolour Sea | In the Playroom
- Easy Kirigami Fish Craft | Pink Stripey Socks
- Paper Plate Seashell Craft | Artsy Craftsy Mom
- Clay Crab Necklace | Hello, Wonderful
Follow the Kids Craft Stars on Pinterest and IG (#kidscraftstars) to stay updated with our most recent crafts and more!
**By downloading and using our free printables you are agreeing to the TOU as follows: These printables are for personal use only. Commercial Use, hosting on other websites, and selling are strictly prohibited. You may not modify its contents. You may print multiple copies for your own personal use (i.e. to make and give to 4 family members). When referring to or sharing this free printable, please link directly to this blog post and not to the PDF. Thank you! © 2015 artsymomma.com
This seashell mermaid purse is a great way to foster imagination in little ones!
We had a great time with this today! My daughter was so happy with it. I doubled the lunch bag as she can be rough and put some Popsicle sticks on the corners where it folded up some. She carried it everywhere filled with her she’ll collection. Thank you!
Yay! Happy to hear she had fun 🙂 Thanks for the great tips too!