Painted Garden Rocks Add Early Spring Color {#ccbg Challenge}

Last Updated on August 2, 2017 by lydiaf1963

Ah, the First Day of April! Trees are developing leaves, flowers are blooming… **needle scratch** Not yet, you say? Are you still waiting for Spring to chase Winter away like we are in Maryland? Today is reveal day for the Creative Craft Bloggers Group and instead of waiting for the natural order of things, we’re adding our own Spring Color with a quartet of  fun projects. Mine is a set of painted garden rocks inspired by similar projects on the internet and Pinterest.

My sister and I worked on this project together. It’s been ages since we’ve been able to do anything like this, since we normally live so far apart. We used the challenge theme of Spring Colors as our guide and photos of rocks painted with mandalas as our inspiration. We also watched a few YouTube videos on how to draw mandalas. During our research we also discovered an art form called zendoodles which looked like fun and a solution to filling in the odd shaped rocks.

The local landscape center sold the stones for 20¢ per pound. We ended up with six. For the paint we bought a set of outdoor acrylic paints (affiliate link) with the little tubs and two larger containers. The set gave us some beautiful colors to work with without having to purchase individual bottles. It turned out to be a good value as we didn’t come close to using all of any one color and we were able to use different color combinations on each stone. A variety set of crafting brushes and a couple paint pens rounded out our supplies.

We had to plan ahead to do this project, which took a couple days to complete. The stones had to be washed and given time to dry. Each stone also had a base coat. I used plain white or black for my base. Laura tinted hers by mixing white and a little bit of another color. We searched the web and sketched practice designs while waiting for the base coats to dry which was the most time consuming part. We rotated between the designs in order to paint more or less continuously. After we were finished, a sealer was applied to help preserve the paint. It really helped the colors to POP!

Laura is the painter in the family, so she was better able to control the brush and understood how to blend the colors. I learned a lot from her on this project, although I definitely lack the patience she showed to make her brushstrokes look their best. Even so, my Welcome stone was well received as a housewarming present for some friends.

I have new appreciation for people who paint realistic looking animals and other scenes on stones and other unconventional surfaces. More than once I remarked that if we were to repeat this project I would use paint pens exclusively (and got a side eye for my complaintscomments). In fact, we bought a set of markers and have drawn several similar designs by hand on paper. It’s relaxing, as many who have rediscovered the joys of coloring as an adult can attest.

Drawing the mandalas and zen doodles is fun! The trick is to not get carried away and to remember a little bling (gold and silver paint markers) adds something to an otherwise unremarkable design. And if you don’t like your design…cover it with black paint and start over with a beautiful lotus as my sister did.

Each month the Creative Craft Bloggers Group creates a craft inspired by a topic. Please be sure to visit the other members and celebrate Spring colors with them.

Make sure to drop by to see the other projects using the links below. Maybe you have a Spring Color project of your own…feel free to share it with us at the Creatively Crafty Link Party going on right now.

Spring Floral Coaster from Try It – Like It

Painted Stones from Life Beyond the Kitchen

Spring Colors Scarf from 5 Little Monsters

Colorful Painted Pots with Nests from Home Crafts by Ali