Your Community Rocks – How to Paint Rocks

If you haven’t noticed, painted rocks are going crazy lately!  People are painting rocks and leaving them all over their towns and communities for other people to find. I LOVE THIS! Yes – caps for a reason. Painted rocks are easy. If you want to learn how to paint rocks, keep reading. But first let me say that my family started doing this two years ago.  We moved into a house where the previous owners had all the flower beds and full of rocks – on purpose. It’s impossible to dig a hole without loosing your mind and hitting a thousand rocks. So instead of letting the rocks stress us out, we started to use them for better things. Plus we had already painted every other thing in the house, so it was time to move onto something different – rocks. The first time we did it we painted the Love Rocks and left them at a local park on Valentine’s Day. Just a little reminder for people that they are loved.  These rocks are more than just rocks – they’re reminding people that there’s still good things in life and uniting communities right now. If you haven’t yet, get on board the painted rock train and hide some around your neighborhood.

Here’s your directions for painting rocks:

 Painting rocks is just a simple craft. All you need are rocks, acrylic paint and a small paint brush.  There’s not really that many directions I can give you but I would recommend starting simple. After you get the hang of it, then you can go crazy with any design you want.  Painting on rocks is easy but there’s a few tips that might help you out:

• Use the smallest paint brush you own.
• You can also use toothpicks, Qtips or the end of the paintbrush handle to make dots.
• Keep it simple. Rocks are small and any designs will be miniscule. Simple designs such as shapes or dots are the easiest to paint.
• If the rock is shiny the paint can come off easily. Let it cure for 72 hours before using or give it a light spray with clear sealant. 
• Acrylic craft paint works great! Don’t spend a ton of money to paint rocks.
• Look online for painted rock ideas or go for a theme such as fruit or monsters. 
• Let one color dry to the touch before painting a different color on top.
• Wash and dry rocks before starting your project to help the paint adhere better.
• Paint pens with fine tips work well for writing on rocks. 

We don’t just paint rocks for fun. The kids and I like to paint them with a motive. Painted rocks are a great way to bless people with a simple act of kindness. We leave the rocks around our town on the side of walking trails, sitting on a bench or on the bridge handrail.  I even saw one left from someone else at the gas station the other day and we found one on in the woods that someone else had left! 

 

A post shared by Bobbie Byrd (Clumsy Crafter) (@clumsycrafter) on Jul 19, 2017 at 8:08pm PDT

Hopefully people will be drawn to the rock’s designs and then pick them up to find simple messages on the other side. These rocks are our way to help brighten a stranger’s day. It’s a cheap and simple way to reach out to people that you may never see but might just need a kind word that day.  Maybe it’s time to gather some rocks out of your yard or in the floral department of a hobby store and sit down with your kids to paint while you talk about how to give back to others.  Painted rocks – they rock.  Give them a try today. Don’t forget to check out the Love Rocks or Rocks Carved with a Dremel for more ideas.