One day, as I was scrolling through social media, I saw a post from a former student.  She is now an amazing kindergarten teacher and her post included photos of rocks she had painted with her preschool-aged daughter.  She also shared the fun and delightful book she read to her daughter:

Scribble Stones by Diane Alber

This fun and delightful book is about a dull, gray stone that ends up as a paperweight.  Through an encounter with some scribbles on the desk, the stone turned into a colorful creation.  This little scribble stone ended up inspiring thousands of others, which spread happiness and fun around the world.  Simple directions for a scribble stone art project are included on the last page of the book.  I really love books that bridge cross-curricular content, such as art and literacy, and this book is a PERFECT example!

During this same timeframe that I saw my former student’s post, I was taking daily walks (mostly to maintain my sanity) and noticed that so many homes in our neighborhood had rocks in the landscaping around their mailboxes. I also knew that my daughter, a freshman in high school, had extra time on her hands and loves art projects. 

My inspired idea = surprise our neighbors with painted rocks. 

I shared the idea with my daughter that I wanted to bring a little joy to our neighbors and ordered supplies on Amazon. I counted how many homes in our neighborhood had landscaping (because a rock just sitting in the grass by the mailbox is not good news for the mower).  And we began scouring our own landscaping for some smooth-surface rocks. We washed and dried the rocks and waited for our supplies to arrive.

My daughter and future daughter-in-law are highly artistic, and they painted rocks from their own creative minds. However, I don’t consider myself to be a natural artist – I am just good at adapting other people’s ideas, so I knew I’d need a little help.  After looking at many choices, I decided to order two different stone art books for inspiration and I really liked each of them for different reasons.

The Art of Stone Painting: 30 Designs to Spark Your Creativity by F. Sehnaz Bac

I gained the most personal inspiration from this book!  Although the book does not offer true step-by-step instructions, there are photos of the rocks in at least three stages, which was enough to really help me conceptualize what I wanted to paint and how to get from start to finish.  I also read several reviews (with photos) from individuals who claimed they weren’t artistic, but still had great results.  After using this book myself, I would completely agree! For older children and adults this would be my go-to recommendation for painting with acrylics.

Rock Art Handbook: Techniques and Projects for Painting, Coloring, and Transforming Stones by Samantha Sarles

This book was a great resource for supplies and techniques.  I picked up some great painting tips from this book. In fact, there are many, many options well beyond acrylic paints for us to try in the future.  If you have younger kids or are looking for a wider variety of styles, this book might be the best option for you!

Supplies:
Rocks

Acrylic Paint Pens

Black Outline Pens

White Gel Pens

Gelly Roll Pens

Clear Sealant

Rocks and paint are the basic supplies you will need.  If you want to add any fancy details, you will need at least one black outline pen – we used a Sakura pen set, but even a Sharpie Ultra Fine marker could work!  However, we really enjoyed the ability to add many small details.

After painting the rocks, we allowed them to dry for over 24 hours. Knowing these would be displayed outdoors, we sprayed them with a clear coat in the backyard for an extra layer of protection.

Painting Tips and Tricks:

  • Select smooth rocks.  This will provide a much easier painting surface.
  • We quickly learned that the lighter colors needed a white undercoat.  Without the white base it took layers and layers … and way too much drying time.  After the first couple of rocks, we painted white first, which not only helped the light colors to show but made the other vibrant colors really “pop”.
  • Look at the shape of the rock and visualize what object comes to mind.  I really learned this from the two artists I was painting with!  Seriously, I was blown away by the way they transformed rocks into artwork based on the shape.  However, consider yourself warned … you may never be able to go on walks without searching for the perfect heart, rainbow, or sunshine rock.
This is the one by our own mailbox!

Once all the rocks were painted, we placed all the rocks at our neighbor’s home on our evening walk. I also created and shared a printable BINGO sheet for our neighbors so they would be able to go on their own scavenger hunt.

For a free printable OUR NEIGHBORHOOD “ROCKS” BINGO sheet with blank squares (you fill in your own words, based on the rocks you paint) enter your name and email address below and it will come right to your inbox:

For a free printable OUR NEIGHBORHOOD “ROCKS” BINGO completed gameboard sheet (you paint the rocks to match the words) enter your name and email address below and it will come right to your inbox:

Honestly, I was overwhelmed by the positive response from our neighbors.  We saw so many neighbors out searching for the rocks over the next couple of weeks. When we started this kindness project, I was thinking of something to provide a little fun for the kids, but I quickly realized this was an activity for all ages.  We hope this inspires you to look for unique ways to share a little joy and kindness!

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