A while back I came across two lovely posts about making story stones from My Creative Family and Painting on the Ceiling. I really loved these posts and I wanted to make some story stones for my daughters too. I was planning on doing this when they were asleep but Cakey caught me looking at them on the computer. From over my shoulder I heard a little voice "can we make those?" I just got myself a partner!
We have lots of rounded river pebbles in our garden that were perfect, so we started straight away. My plan to draw/paint pictures that could be used to construct a story was shoved to one side as Cakey decided that she wanted to make them "pretty" to decorate the garden.
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| Much to my surprise she got very excited about the circular palette |
Cakey got really excited about painting on the stones. I think she enjoyed the change from painting on paper. I set up a small, round palette (instead of the usual tubs) that she hadn't used before for this project. This small change also added to her excitement.
Our stones didn't turn into story stones – rather they are decorated stones, some of them have paintings of stars, moons and letters and others have patterns and blobs of colour. Cakey painted 23 stones, all in one sitting. We call them our hiding stones. We did this activity on a hot day so they dried quickly and we got to hide them in the garden and play hide and seek.
We used a number of different paints for this project. I have discovered that some of the really safe water-based paint designed specifically for young children washed off in the rain – I guess that is why it washes off clothes too! The stronger more opaque paints have lasted much better and those are the stones that we still hide in the garden to re-discover on another day.
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| Boo arranging our now faded stones months after they were painted |
If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali
For a child to paint 23 stones you know it was a great project. Thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat i love these, i really want to do this think boys would like hiding stones.
ReplyDeleteSassy
Love these Ali! The twins will too. What type of paint did you use? x
ReplyDeleteI used acrylic paints – some were those really translucent preschooler paints like crayola make,that you get in kmart, they worked fine but start to run in the rain a bit and fade. I also used some really cheap paint that I got in Teks – mont marte acrylic, they worked well (but will not come off clothes). They are non-toxic but there is no way I would be comfortable with them eating it. I have just bought some paint from Riot Art called Art Culture Student’s acrylic which is a non toxic paint but is more opaque than the preschooler stuff, I reckon that would work well too but the lady in the shop warned me that it will stain clothes if that is an issue for you. I hope that helps.
DeleteWe LOOOOOOOVE painting stones in our house. I don't know what it is, but the kids can't get enough of it. Your stones look BEAUTIFUL! Love them all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
i made story stones for my son, but yours are so much more beautiful. I love the idea of hiding them round the garden so you will come across them from time to time.
ReplyDeleteThe kids move them around all the time, they are useful for holding down paper when we are painting outside too.
DeleteYour stones are beautiful. She did a great job! I stopped by from pinterest to tell you so and was pleasantly surprised to find you have linked to my post at Paint On The Ceiling. I really love the idea of hiding them in the garden and that you let her paint them herself. You've inspired me now :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Hannah, your stones are gorgeous!!
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