Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding Invitations

These Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding Invitations are a fun way to incorporate classy pearls into your wedding invitations.

Beach weddings are a fabulous opportunity to try something a little out of the expected for your wedding guests. Wedding invitations are the perfect opportunity to incorporate your Beach wedding theme, show your personality, and even save a little money making them yourself.

Here is a Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding invitation project that is beautiful, classy, and easy to do. If you are having a large beach wedding with quite a few guests this spring I highly recommend asking some of your bridesmaid and even the grooms men to help make these wonderfully unique Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding invitations.

For this project you will need:

Pearl buttons

Silk thread

Needles

Heavy water color paper

Watercolor paint or acrylic paint

Water

Paint Brushes

Sharp Scissor or Exacto Knife

Heart shaped cookie cutters (optional)

Pencils

This is an easy Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding invitation project if you break it down into a number of different steps and don't let them overwhelm you.

The first step is to find some photos of sea shells or clams. Look for different shapes and large sizes.

Wedding invitations traditionally have quite a bit of information printed on them, so your Pearl in a Clam Shell Beach Wedding invitations will need to be big enough to include all of the information you want on there. Once you have found a variety of sea shell and clam shapes you will want to lay them out on some regular drawing paper, trace them or draw them free hand and cut them out.

Now, you want this invitation to open up like a clam, so fold your paper in half and place the sea shell or clam shape so that the fold will allow it to open. Lay this out flat when you transfer the shape to your watercolor paper.

You can make a variety of different sea shell shaped invitations or stick with one pattern. Cutting them out allows you to see how well your Beach wedding invitation information will fit on the specific sea shell and clam shapes.

Now you are ready to lay your chosen sea shell or clam shell pattern lay out on your heavy water color wedding invitation paper. Trace them lightly with pencil and then cut them out. For super sharp edges onto your beach wedding invitations I highly recommend using a very sharp exacto knife. You may need to change the blade if you are doing a lot of invitations.

Once your beach wedding clam shell invitations are cut out you are ready to start painting. I like to take a paper plate and lay out a palette of romantic sand, cream, and blue colors from my watercolor paints. You can use any color you want.

Before I paint my sea shell or clam shell shaped cutouts I always practice a little on a piece of scrap watercolor paper. This way I don't waste a lot of my seas shell shaped cutouts trying to get the look I want.

Now, use some of your water to dilute the watercolor paint and gentle start brushing it along the edges of your sea shell and clam shell shaped beach wedding invitations. Slowly work your way in to the middle of the invitation. I like to add more water as I work my way in so that the paint becomes more sheer and translucent towards the center of the invitation. This allows your information on the wedding invitation to really stand out.

Now, personally for the outside of the invitation I like to stick with grays, blues, and tans. On the inside I like to paint in creams, pinks, and sand colors. You can print the wedding information on the inside or outside, your choice.

Allow your Valentine's Day heart shaped wedding invitations to dry thoroughly then you are ready to add your writing. I personally like to write in calligraphy on these beautiful beach wedding invitations, but you could also print on them as well.

Now, once all the ink and paint has dried you want to sew on your pearl button on the inside of the clam shell or sea shell. You can find great pearl like buttons at any arts and craft store or fabric store.

It should be located in the middle inside of the sea shell.

For a twist you could sew the pearl like button on to the opening side of the clam shell. Sew a loop of thread to the other flap. Now, you can button your clam shell or sea shell invitation shut with some elegance.