My family has had a crazy spring with everything shut down and trying to do remote learning at home. We’ve also traveled a little bit once summer started. Now that we’re home and school is over, we’ve finally got some time to try some new activities.

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When we were on vacation, our cottage had access to a beach filled with stones. Of course, quite a few of them came home with us, so I had the idea to paint them. We looked through Pinterest for ideas, and tried a bunch of our favorites.

Our first step was to paint a base layer of color on each rock. We used acrylic paint instead of washable paint since I wanted the paint to last. For many of the rocks, we did a base coat on both sides. There were a few that Buddy only wanted one side painted. Make sure your paint is really dry before turning them over. (Side note – even though Buddy is wearing a smock, he did somehow get paint on the back of his clothes. Make sure you double check clothing immediately after painting, and get the paint out before it dries!)

Once we had a base layer of paint, we came back after an hour to decorate. We used small paint brushes, Q-tips, and paint markers to decorate the rocks. Buddy was actually able to do a lot more of the details than I thought he would be able to.

We used small paint brushes to do the dinosaur rocks and the alligator one that Buddy is doing below. We used paint pens to add details to the dinosaur rocks as well. The monster rocks and hedgehog rocks were also created with small paint brushes followed by paint pens for the smaller details.

We used Q-tips to do the dot rocks. They actually turned out better than I thought they would! We also used Q-tips to do the dots in the polar bears eyes/nose, the lady bugs, and the watermelon. Both the polar bears’ ears and the lady bugs’ eyes needed paint pens for the small details.

When we did paint pens, Buddy wanted to write his name and make his own drawings on some of the rocks. It was very easy for him to use and write neatly. We used Sharpie paint pens and Uni Posca paint pens on the rocks. Both worked very well.

After we added our details, we let everything dry again. Then we coated our rocks with two coats of Mod Podge. We turned our rocks a little too soon and a couple stuck to the newspaper. So make sure you wait a long time before you Mod Podge on the back side of your rocks. We applied sticky google eyes to our monster rocks after the Mod Podge step.

Once the rocks were finished, we picked a few to hide at a park near our house. We had so much fun making the rocks, and even more fun hiding some for others to find. It was a great activity, and I’m sure it will be a summer craft for years to come.