Border Collie Magnets – Painted Dog Seashell Craft Idea!
It’s no secret. I am a complete sucker for seashells and dogs, especially border collies like mine. So, my daughters and I decided to make seashell border collie magnets as a sweet way to celebrate our pup. This fun seashell craft is pretty easy with our step-by-step instructions and we know you’d love this, too!
We made this adorable puppy seashell craft to adorn our refrigerator and love how cute it is. It’s a constant reminder of our love for our amazing doggo.
Crafting with seashells gives us such a fun way to make memorable vacation trinkets even more meaningful.
Keep reading and I’ll share the easiest steps to create your own border collie craft magnet.
Dog Craft for Kids: Border Collie Seashell Magnet
When making adorable dog crafts, preschool age and up can handle this super cute big seashell craft. Of course, you’ll need to provide adult assistance for the hot gluing portion of the craft!
First, gather up your materials and prepare a work station. We use an Oatmeal Cream Pies box opened up as our work surface on the kitchen table, but you can also put down newspapers, brown paper bags cut open, or whatever you like.
Materials:
You need the following materials to make this cool seashell craft of a dog face:
- Medium to Large Size Shells
- Magnets (We used disc magnets)
- Paint
- Paintbrushes
- Cup of Water
- Paper Towels
- Mod Podge Craft Sealer
- Newspaper, Cardboard, or Protective Table Cover
- Wax Paper
- Hot Glue Gun
- Glue Gun Sticks
Once you have your materials, get ready for the fun of making cute border collie magnets! This is perfect for a farm dog craft or just for animal lovers!
DIY Dog Magnets Made from Seashells
Seashell craft making is so much fun because it lets you be creative while using treasures you’ve collected at the beach.
Follow these easy steps to make border collie magnets with the kids or solo.
Painting Instructions:
Here’s how to make dog magnets with easy steps for kids.
- Set up your workspace to protect your surface. Use newspaper, craft paper, open cereal boxes or whatever works.
- Choose a clamshell type seashell for the face. Remember, lighter seashells will be safer to use because they’ll be less likely to fall off the fridge.
- Choose two oyster shells for the ears. We looked for ones that looked a bit like triangles or shapes that seemed expressive like a border collie’s ears!
- Paint the biggest seashell white for the dog’s face. Don’t worry, you will add the markings soon!
- Set the white shell on some wax paper to dry. You’ll be able to add a second coat later if you need it.
- Paint the two shells for the ears black on the convex side. This is the raised side.
- Set them on the wax paper to dry. Place the wet sides facing up.
- Go back to see if the white shell is dry. If so, continue to the next step.
- Make a nose. Paint a small rounded triangle as a nose near the point, facing toward the point.
- Below the nose, make a thin, straight line down. You can use the end of the paintbrush or a toothpick for this.
- Make the mouth. Next, put a smile at the very edge. The straight line should be in the center of the smile.
- Add two dots for eyes. You can again use the end of the paintbrush for this.
- Add markings or a mask. Our border collie has a half-mask so we painted a black patch over one eye and just a bit of black at the very edge of the shell on the other side.
- Allow this shell to dry. Place it facing up on the wax paper.
- Finish the ears. Use pink paint to paint the inside of the ears on the concave side. Use black paint to cover just the edges of the ears so you can see the “fur” on the ear.
- Allow everything to try. Next, you’ll glue it all together!
Assembling Border Collie Dog Magnets
Now that you’ve painted all the parts and let them dry, it’s time to glue it all together!
Gluing Instructions:
Here’s how to make dog seashell magnets with a hot glue gun:
- Place the dog face magnet on the table in front of you.
- Add a dot of hot glue where the first ear should go. We glued ours to the back (inside) of the shell.
- Press the ear shell firmly but carefully onto the glue, with the pink side facing up.
- Now add a dot of glue for the second ear.
- Press the other ear shell firmly onto the glue.
- Allow the hot glue to cool and dry and then move on to the next step.
- Take the shell over to your refrigerator and hold it against it. Try to determine the best place to glue the magnet. If the magnet is too far sunken in, you may need to glue another small shell or other spacer type item (like a chunk of cardboard) inside.
- Turn the shell upside-down and glue the magnet to the inside of the face shell. If you need a spacer, glue that in first and then glue the magnet to the spacer.
- Allow to cool and set.
- Test your magnet on a part of the fridge where it is protected from falling. Make sure the magnet is strong enough to hold the shell magnet. You may need to glue on a second magnet, depending on how heavy it is.
Trust me on this – you want to be very careful the first time you test if the magnet on the seashell ornament craft is strong enough to hold.
My daughter’s border collie shell magnet fell off the fridge and broke, so I had to do a bit of surgery to get it back together.
Dog Face Craft Magnets
Our seashell dog craft activity is all about the border collie because we love ours so much. You can make these handmade dog magnets for any kind of dog – or animal, really – that you like!
To change to a different type of dog face, consider these important factors:
- Color
- Markings
- Ear Shape
For other seashell craft animals, use the same tips above. You can make cats, pigs, cows, and all kinds of animals. So far we’ve only made border collie magnets out of seashells, but who knows what the future holds!
We hope you enjoyed this fun and adorable dog face art and craft project. I’m sure in good time we will have even more dog themed craft ideas to share.
For more amazing seashell craft ideas, be sure to check out our DIY seashell plant tags.
Our website features affiliate links to products that we personally believe in. If you make a purchase from a link on our site, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you! This helps our girls chase their garden dreams! Thanks for your support. (View full affiliate disclaimer at the end of the page.)
Of course, if you want to make this project as a dog craft ornament without the magnet, you can set the painted border collie seashells all around your garden, too. Just make sure you seal them first!
Do you have any other fun seashell art and craft ideas? Feel free to share them in our comments. And as always, you can always ask us questions if you get stuck while working on one of our gardening arts and crafts projects like this cool farm dog magnet.
Hope you enjoy the project!
11.04.22 – Updated to improve spacing and topic, added supplies listings.
