This week, we are painting rocks! The idea came after many nature walks enjoying the spring weather and fanciful talks of fairies and elves. As usual, treasures were gathered and carried home. I generally toss these “treasures” back outside, but this time I decided it would be more fun to make art with them. After all, great effort went into carrying them in pockets all the way home.
Here are the supplies you will need for this project:
—Rocks (washed)
—Paint
—Paintbrushes
—Paper towels
—Paper plates (optional)
—Cups/paper cups (for water)
—Mini cupcake pan (optional)
You see two types of paints in the picture, acrylic paints and tempera paints. I have a plethora of the acrylic paints, because my house is where good crafting intentions come to die. Bottles are purchased and never used. If you are better than me, though, you will need to buy either of these paints from any store that carries craft supplies. They shouldn’t cost more than $0.50 per bottle for the acrylic paints and around $2 for a large bottle of tempera paint. Choose wisely, though. If you are going to put your rocks outside like we did, I recommend using the acrylic paints. The tempura paints wash away with water. This will make small children exceedingly sad. Beware. The paintbrushes are also inexpensive and can be used repeatedly as long as they are washed out.
Gather supplies
The first thing you will need to do after washing your rocks is cover your work surface. If it’s sunny outside, I highly recommend that you do this outside and take advantage of the sun to dry the paint quickly. After covering, you can gather your supplies. I recommend filling up the cups of water first to avoid making a mess. I always forget and end up spilling water on everything. This is also where the mini cupcake tin comes in handy. I like to use this old thing to hold the paint. It’s handy whether or not you paint with children. It’s nice to have a place to put the paints where they stay and don’t make a mess. It’s a contained area where you can mix paints to make different colors. Because I do these projects with my children, I prefer to use tools that keep everything centralized and contained. Just a tip!
Pass it out
Now you can hand out the paper plates, paper towels, rocks, and paint brushes. Everyone is probably dying to get started now. That’s the best part of this project. It moves quickly.
Paint and Create
Just start painting! If you have a child who is a little gung-ho, sometimes it helps to model painting for them. Doing the same project alongside them best does this. It’s also the greatest way to show them fun new techniques. Nobody likes to be told new things. However, if they see something new that inspires them, they will learn it. This is how my children learned to use the paintbrush handle to make dots. It sounds silly, but it works every time.
Let them dry
If you haven’t been painting outside, go ahead and put the rocks outside to dry now. It shouldn’t take long. This project was so fast and so much fun. It was also amazing to see the difference in rocks. I looked at the difference in skill level between the oldest and youngest, and the difference in the beauty of their rocks was stark. The words of Duane Hanson came to my mind. “Art doesn’t have to be pretty. It has to be meaningful.”
We painted rocks this week, because my children have seen some beautiful fairy-house creations that other people have done. I am not capable of such extravagant creations. Like most parents, though, sad faces on my children motivate me to do something to bring them joy. I decided that even though we couldn’t build fairy houses right now, we could definitely paint beautiful rocks to put in our flowerpots that the fairies would love. When we put the rocks in with the flowers, the art definitely had meaning to the kids. All I needed was their smiles. I hope you all have fun and enjoy the happiness rock painting brings!
