Painting Rocks

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Sorry its been awhile since I've done a new post, I've been busy in the yard and garden this spring & summer, I still am, but have been wanting to do a few crafty things too :)

I wanted some bright spots in my flowerbeds, besides the plants and flowers. So I have been painting rocks lately... I think they are cute and they don't take long to paint at all. Besides that, we have a ton! of rocks in our yard, so it was easy to find them all. I had little pile(s) stacked up from working the soil in the garden and also in my flowerbeds. Lots of different sizes and shapes so I collected a bunch so I could pick and choose.

What you need:

Rocks - various shapes 
Primer Paint
Craft Paint
Paint Brush (or three)

Find a few rocks in different shapes that you think would like to paint on...

The first step is probably the most important step, cleaning your rocks...make sure you remove all the dirt. I used  "Awesome" that we purchase at Dollar General... for real, the stuff is awesome! Use it full strength, or diluted, all for $3.00! Good Stuff! we use it on all sorts of stuff.
Anyways clean your rocks and let them dry totally. Mine seemed very porous, so I let them dry in the sun for a day, brought them inside at night and painted them the next day.

Next you'll want to prime them if you are painting on the whole rock, if not you can skip that step. I primed mine.

Primed rocks

After the primer is dry, paint whatever your heart desires :) bugs, frogs,turtles, dogs cats, or ones with just designs.

Beginning of a Lady Bug

Oops! too pink, had to tone it down a lil, I decided on  flesh color instead.

After painting, I let mine dry for a day before I sprayed them with clear coat. Then I let them cure for about a week, inside before putting them outside.
Thats it, easy peasy. Cute little rocks....

I'm still going to paint a few more since they are pretty quick. I washed a lot of rocks so I'd have a choice of shapes. I'm looking for one that has the perfect shape for a frog, and I want to do a turtle too. I'll also do a few with just some designs on them, maybe I'll put those, along with the mushroom rock in my gnome village when we do it...

I'll add some more pictures after I get a few more painted...

Added 8-22-13

M&M rock

M&M Rock and M&M's :)

Still looking for more flat-ish, round-ish "M&M" rocks to paint...


I'm also working on a few projects for future posts ;)

Until then, Happy painting!!

DIY - Pretty Acorn Ornament

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So if you follow my blog, some of you know that I have a ton of pine tree's, hence my  Pine Cone Decoration. Well, I have a bunch of Oak tree's also. I have several different species of Oaks. And these tree's put out a Gajillion acorns, and I mean a Bazillion!! So I thought, "What can I do with some of these??" ¯\(°_o)/¯   I know!  I'll make a ornament with the little "hats"!  ツ

Millions of em' !!

First I collected, what I thought would be enough (believe me, I didn't even put a dent in them!)...then I cleaned them, by letting them soak for a little while in hot soapy water (Dawn of coarse) Then I rinsed them and let them soak in hot water with some vinegar. Let them dry completely on a paper towel. BTW, I didn't collect enough, had to go out and collect more, several times... (¬_¬)

3" Styrofoam Balls

Craft Foam Ornament Hooks

Package say no glue needed, but I want mine permanent... so I glued it.

Craft Foam Ornament Hooks (back side)

Ribbon

Gold Glitter Glue

Clear Spray Paint

Acorn "Hats"

Here is what you need:

3" Styrofoam Balls
Hooks of some sort (I used Craft Foam Ornament Hooks - see picture above)
Brown Paint (spray paint would be best but I didn't have any, so I used my    craft paint)
Acorn "Hats"
Gold Glitter Glue
Clear Spray Paint
Ribbon
Hot Glue Gun (or any kind of craft glue. Hot glue dries fast)

I got the styrofoam balls, the hooks, the ribbon, clear spray paint and the glitter glue at Walmart, but you can find any of these at a craft store.

Dab some glue on the pointy end of the ornament hook and push it into the styrofoam, paint the styrofoam balls and the hook  brown. (I had to do two coats on the balls.) I used a wire to hold the foam while painting. Spray paint would probably be faster, but I didn't have any on hand. I just used my brown craft paint.

You can see the balls in the background have two coats of paint already.

Let them dry...
Once dry start attaching the Acorn "hats" with hot glue (I left the stems on the "lids", applied glue, and poked it into the styrofoam.

Put a dab of glue on the top of the "hat" and poke into foam.

Push "hats" into the foam.

Continue gluing until the whole ball is covered (if I had big gaps, I used the "not quite formed acorns" to fill in) I also used smaller "hats" to fill in.

Not quite formed acorns as gap fillers

Break them apart 

Once you have glue all the "hats" on, Spray with clear coat (I did two coats of clear because I used Satin finish.) Let Dry....

Using the glitter glue I squeezed some glue around the top of a few hats, then with a paintbrush, painted it all around the edges. Continue squeezing glitter glue and painting on all the "hats" until complete. I swiped the insides of the "hats" with a almost dry brush with just a little glitter glue on it, to just give it a hint of glitter.
Let it dry...You may need to go back and apply to spots that you missed, or to just give it a second coat of glitter, up to you.

Once its dry, tie a 8 inch (approximate) piece of ribbon on the hook for the hanging ribbon, and knot it. With a 12-15 inch (approx.) of ribbon, make a bow and glue it to the ornament, close to the hook, making sure not to glue the hanging ribbon, so it can move freely.

Sorry about the focus on this one, but you can see the glitter pretty good in this shot!

Added new picture 12-25-12 of the ornament on my tree

That was fun!