painting on rocks & stones

Finding your “canvas” in Mother Nature:

Another simple and budget friendly craft for kids and adults alike. You can simply walk outside or go to the nearest creek by your house to start collecting stones and rocks. I have found that the more flat and smooth the rock is, the better and easier it will be to create the look you want.

Supplies needed:

paintbrush
rocks and stones
acrylic paints
acrylic sealer to preserve your stone painting once it dries
mandala maker kit which includes different size plastic dabbers. This will help you be able to create circles of the same size, and it comes with a handy stencil to keep your art balanced.
chalk pencils to temporarily outline the design you are going to paint

Besides a good ol’ fashion paint brush, I would recommend using a clay tool that has a metal ball on the end. This tool can be used for so many different crafts, so I always have a few on hand. The metal ball makes it incredibly easy to create perfect little circles with zero effort.

The process:

Just get your usual painting supplies out, grab your rock, and start free handing your design. Or draw one out first to work from. Chalk pencils are a great way to make an outline and then just go over your outline in paint. Once it dries, you can gently rub the chalk right off…if it didn’t already come off as you were painting.

What I do is take the tool and dab it into my paint (which you will NOT need a lot of), then press firmly into the rock, and you will have a perfect dot.

You can slide the tool across to create cool designs and curves. The dotting is where this tool comes in handy. You can create some very detailed mandalas and designs like that.

Just play around with it, it will come naturally. And if you don’t like what you did, rinse with water (soap and water if it doesn’t come off easy), let it dry, and start over.

With this rock I used a touch of glitter paint to add a little extra something…

Once you are happy with your rock, I recommend using some type of ModgePodge to seal everything in. That way if it gets wet it will not undo your beautiful painting.

Love this because you can find all the “canvases” you need in mother nature. Plus you don’t need any skill, and is for all ages.