I have to admit, I was a little sceptical of painting rocks as a craft, but Pickle really enjoyed it and actually so did I (it’s very calming)! I tried to get Chops involved too, but he was far more keen on sucking paint off the brush than using it to paint with…
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To paint rocks, you will need:
- some smooth rocks/pebbles (scrubbed clean and dried)
- paintbrushes
- paints (ideally acrylic)
- spray varnish (as a final coat if your finished rocks will live outside)
COST: under £1
AGE: 2+
TIME: 20 mins + drying time
If you need a bit more convincing, here are the first 10 of my top 20 reasons to give rock painting a try (I’ll post another 10 next week)…
1. Chalkboard painted rocks
Bernadette at B3 Home Designs saw these at Pottery Barn and thought “I can do that!”, so she did. And here’s her how-to.
2. A family of ladybird rocks
Dionne at Passengers on a Little Spaceship painted this sweet family of ladybirds for her garden. Chops would love these!
3. Love rocks
Emily at Red Bird Crafts made these beautiful love rocks (such a great idea for Valentine’s, or for kids to keep in their pocket on the first day of school – every time they feel the rock, they remember how much they are loved)
Here’s my (rather less beautiful!) attempt…
4. One-of-a-kind Paperweight
I found this beautiful paperweight on Geninne’s Art Blog – I especially love the colours she has used. I would love to receive this as a gift.
5. A garden game of tic tac toe
Sam at thrive360living made this outdoor game of tic tac toe for her neighbour’s kids. What a genius idea!
6. Alphabet stones
Karyn at Teach Beside Me painted these fun alphabet rocks. If you had time (and flat stones/pebbles), you could do upper case on one side and lower case on the other…
7. Stone strawberries
Lee Wismer painted these lovely stone strawberries which look almost good enough to eat (they teach birds not to eat your real fruit!) and wrote this step-by-step how-to guide, so you can too!
8. Pebble magnet rock monsters
Zoe at Coast made these adorable magnet rock monsters and even posted an easy-to-follow tutorial.
I especially love the part about biscuits…
9. An outdoor scavenger hunt for painted rocks
Ness at One Perfect Day set up a garden scavenger hunt for her little boy using their painted rocks. What a fabulous idea!
For older children you could paint arrows or other clues onto the rocks and set up a woodland trail with some (chocolate?) treasure for them to find at the end.
10. Painted rock (stone) bookends/doorstop if you’re feeling ambitious!
Here’s some inspiration for painted rock bookends – a cuddly owl family (Carriveau on Etsy)
And inspiration for a painted rock doorstop – a curled-up tabby cat (Hilary Nash on Folksy)
Do you want to paint rocks yet? Well, do you..?
Check back next week for part 2 (or even better, leave me a comment and subscribe to Hodge Podge)!
Looks like you guys had a great time painting rocks! Isn’t it fun. I find it very meditative as well. And my son just adores playing with rocks. You can pretty much turn a rock into anything. Love your great round-up. Thanks for including my tic-tac-toe :-).
We really did – I had no idea it could be so enjoyable!
Thank you so much for visiting and commenting. And for allowing me to share your fabulous idea 🙂
Love some of the pebble designs you have painted. I love to write happy slogans on them then leave them out and about somewhere like a wall or path for people to find. I found one many years ago when it wasn’t popular to paint pebbles and I copied the idea. I like to think just maybe it has brightened someone’s day.
❤️ ? LOVE LOVE LOVE YOUR IDEAS
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I’ve been thinking about doing this craft with my little ones, there are some great ideas here. I love the strawberries.
Thank you so much for visiting and commenting Mrs Fox! I am still gob-smacked at just how many things you can paint on a rock – it seems like an incredibly versatile craft (and costs virtually nothing) 😀 Please do come back and let me know how your rock painting goes – I would love to hear.
I just checked out your blog – LOVE the Pirate party theme, especially the hats…
http://mrsfoxs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/pirate-party-ideas-free-printables.html
Have a fantastic weekend!
Wow, what a lot of great ideas! Thanks for joining in the Mumsnet thrifty crafts linky 🙂
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OMG I am running out immediately to get rocks!!
Yes – do! It’s such a fun and easy craft for any age 😀
P.S. Just followed you on Bloglovin – the carrot cat swung it… 😉
Thanks!
I really love this idea, so much so that our whole outdoor toddler group session on Friday is going to be about painting rocks. We live near the beach so they’ll be 25 children doing a pebble scavenger hunt and then painting their own pebbles on the beach. Plus I can recommned a fab story about painted stones called Peter’s Pebbles by Cherie Zamazing (yes!), perfect to round off the session.
That’s so lovely Alison! How did it go?
And thanks for the book recommendation – must check it out… 😀
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