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Evoke a Summery Feel With Beach-Themed Artwork

Lately, I’ve found myself caught up in the beach-themed trend. There’s something calming about things that evoke the summery feel of water lapping against the shore and seagulls gliding across a clear blue sky.

After enduring a year and a half of Covid, we could all do with more things that make us feel calmer. To that end, I offer these three art projects, super easy, as always, to help bring that beachy feeling to your home.

For each of these projects you will need:

3 white frames, the same or different sizes
nautical wood shapes (three different shapes, 8 per pack – Dollar Tree)
white acrylic paint
printed craft paper or burlap (12 x 12″ paper pack from Dollarama)
nautical rope (13.5 feet at Dollarama)
scissors
hot glue
wood filler

I found three different sized white frames in my stash. I like white for this project but you do you. The nautical shapes I found were seahorses, anchors and sailboats. I painted them all white, being sure to cover the edges.

Sea-horsing Around

Choose the craft paper of your choice and cut pieces to fit each frame by tracing around the backings.

Seahorses are a particular favourite of mine, so I was excited to find wood shapes in their likeness. I chose this seashell print for the seahorse. It seems appropriate for an underwater creature.

This frame measures about 3 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches. It’s one of the type found at Dollar Tree that has a clip at the top to hold a picture. I removed the clip, inserted and paper and hot glued the painted seahorse onto the middle of the paper.

The frame has a stand but, as I wanted this piece for the wall, I used a length of nautical rope to make a hanger and hot glued it onto the back. Nautical rope for nautical pictures seems the obvious choice.

You can leave the stand on, so you have the option of setting it on a shelf, too. Just pull the rope hanger forward over the top of the frame.

The finished piece. I’m liking the way the blue and white compliment each other. The hole where a hanger would go is positioned where the seahorse’s eye would be, so that worked out well.

Anchors Aweigh

The next piece in my trio of beach-themed artwork involves this 5 X 7 inch recessed frame.

I removed the glass, as it won’t be needed and considered using the picture that came with the frame as a background for a sailboat. However, I decided that I liked the look of the craft paper better. It conjures up the feeling of sunlight on water.

Instead of the sailboat, I decided to use an anchor for this picture, saving the sailboats for the last piece.

It needed a little something extra, so I glued some nautical rope around the inside edge of the frame, next to the paper, to form a border around the anchor.

A small shell covers where the two rope ends meet in the left-hand bottom corner.

This frame came with a hanger, so all I had to do was put a nail in the wall and hang it up.

Sail Boat Regatta

My last beach-themed artwork features sailboats on an expanse of water.

I was using a 12 inch square frame for this piece, so I painted three sailboats. These pieces all came with twine hangers so they could be used as ornaments. I had started painting, before I realized I didn’t want the hole in the boat sails, so I used a bit of wood filler to fix the problem.

I tried the painted sailboats in various positions on the backing until I was happy with the arrangement, then glued them down and added the frame. The plastic “glass” in this frame didn’t hinder me using the wood shapes, so I left it in.

Next, I glued nautical rope all around the outside of the frame, making little loops between the points where I glued. Basically, I glued once in the corner of the frame and once in the middle on each of the four sides.

I really like the way this one turned out. You can hang these three pieces together or separately. I think they’d really look good in a grouping.

Which one of these nautical wall pieces is your favourite? Email me at marlenealexander2327@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you!

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