Painted Rocks

When Jim was away in Alaska the kids and I (well, me mostly, but the kids got right on board) decided to paint some rocks to keep ourselves busy.  First, we went on a walk looking for said rocks.  Tralee and Hunter each picked their own out of the drainage area outside our subdivision.  Not sure if that's legal, but I decided that two rocks wouldn't be missed from the hundreds that are there.  Next, we painted on the base coat (white).  After that was dry I let each kid pick a color to paint their rocks.  My plan was to let them pick one color, let it dry, then let them pick the next.  My hope was to get some kind of funky multicolored rocks to display in our flowerbed.  Unfortunately my babes didn't get the memo, and completely covered the rock in each new color, making the old color obsolete.  Towards the end each child choose the color brown to paint their rock.  REALLY!?!?!  Brown?  I tried to talk them out of brown by saying positively convincing things (sort of).  The following may or may not have come out of my mouth: "You guys!  Brown is ugly!  Do you want your rocks to look just like brown rocks again, or worse, look like rocks with poop all over them!?  OR do you want them to look like nice painted colorful rocks?"  My nay-saying didn't deter, and both children were convinced that brown was the perfect color for their rocks.  I lost, two against one, so I gave up until the next day.

By the next day I decided I would have to delegate a little bit more instead of, "just let the rocks turn out how they turn out!"  I explained we would be picking a new base color (not brown), painting the rock (yet again), and then picking out a shape from my Silhouette collection and use vinyl as a stencil to paint the shape onto the rock.  

To help inspire my children I googled "painted rocks" and showed them the images of what some people did.  Tralee decided she wanted to paint a butterfly after seeing a pretty butterfly painted rock.  Hunter usually copies his sister, so he picked a butterfly too.  I helped Tralee with the rest of her rock.  She choose all the colors, she chose her butterfly shape, the flower shape, and had limited help from me painting the colors on.  The only addition I made to her rock was outlining the shapes with a black paint pen, I added the white dots, and sprayed on the sealant.

I can't say the same for Hunter's rock.  He helped apply the new base color, but lost interest soon after that.  So, I finished up his butterfly on my own.  I have to say, I quite like it.  "Hunter's" rock turned out very well indeed.

All-in-all it was a fun little project to do with the kids. 

Applying the base coat

Hunter had to use each and every paint brush

I love when kids stick their tongue out when they're hard at work.

I love Hunter's face here.  He was admiring Tralee's work.  "Oooooo!"

Finished.  Tralee's rock is on the left, Hunter's/mine is on the right

We might be doing this project again in the semi-near future.  It was kind of awesome.