06.03.19 How to Paint and Hide Rocks, by Rosalyn Chauvin – PART ONE OF A FOUR PART SERIES

I absolutely LOVE rock painting!  Sitting in my rock room painting rocks and listening to Christian gospel music puts me in my absolutely best happy place!

The front door mat our son Chip gave us!  It’s so perfect for us!

Rock painting awakens creativity in my brain.  It’s simple to do and I love that I can reach out to others about God’s love and saving grace, and put a smile on someone’s face, spreading joy, and possibly brightening their day.

I visited a dear friend recently whose mother has dementia.  I promised her I’d put together a simple guide to follow so she could do this with her mom.  I’m trying to keep this simple but have so much to share that it may get long! Rock painting is something that can mean in the life of someone with dementia.  When previous skills and abilities start fading away this can bring a way of being productive in an easy and fulfilling way. Children love rock painting so if you’ve got a child looking for something to do this summer this is a great idea!

Here is a summary of the main steps to help you along a bit.  There is much more information about each step below this list.

❤️ Get rocks from rivers, landscape centers, Home Depot, Lowes or even your driveway and road if they are gravel. At least half of my painted rocks come from my driveway and road!  My preference since river rocks are not always available is a Landscape Center like Smith’s Landscaping in Ponchatoula.

🧡 Collect supplies starting with acrylic paint, paint markers if your painting talent is rather limited like mine is, paint brushes, clear coat spray. 💛Add supplies as desired like glitter glue, glitter, stencils, glue for attaching information labels.

💚 Come up with your own art or writing ideas or copy one of the ones you’ll see below.  I have learned a lot from copying other peoples work. Over time you can add rocks for specific holidays. I’ll include below some of my often used inspirational or funny sayings.

💙 Experiment with your paints doing simple rocks with a coat of white, let it dry, coat of your choice of color (or a second coat of white if you want a white rock, let it dry, paint something nice or write inspiring words on the rock with either acrylic paints or paint markers, let it dry, if you want to paste a label to the back, let it dry.

💜 Put a coat of mod podge over all areas where you wrote on the rock with markers, sharpies, any other markers. This stops the writing or art from bleeding when you spray it.

🧡 Spray a light coat of clear spray from 12 inches away on the back, let it dry completely.  Spray a heavier coat from about 6 inches, let it completely dry.

💚 When completely dry all around, lay them wherever you want indoors for several hours, I prefer 24 hrs.

💙 Hide the rocks in plain sight in front of stores, gas stations.  Not where anyone could trip on them or in the grass where they could get caught in a lawnmower and most of all, not in National Parks or National Forests.

💜 If you did put a label on the back hopefully the finder will post a picture on the Facebook group page Rosie Rocks. About 1 picture out of 50 rocks hidden is posted.

More about all of the above can be found below!

For those doing rocks with small children or folks with dementia I recommend you do the painting of the white and colored coat and let it dry before having them add their creative touch in the form of art or inspirational writing.   If that way is too hard then let them do the simple paint coating of the rock with white and a color layer, then you do the art or inspirational writing.

❤️ For around $20 you can put together a basic rock painting set of acrylic paints, clear spray, paint brushes, and paint markers. 

❤️ The first thing to note is that artistic skill is absolutely NOT a requirement.  I ooh and aah at the really pretty painted ones I see, but whatever a child or adult wants to create is just as fantastic to the person that finds the rock!

❤️ I recommend buying rocks from a garden landscaping company or Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, or Walmart. I find a lot of mine in my driveway or the road in front of our house!  If you find rocks out in nature, clean them really good and let it completely dry. These are from Home Depot.
Smith’s Landscaping Company is my favorite source for buying 3 to 6 inch across, round, flat stones. I was just there and the current price is 30 cents a pound.  My sweet son Chip got around 30 medium size rocks for $9! If you are local, here is the info:
19355 Hwy 22 East
Ponchatoula, LA 70454
(985) 386-8862

The rocks we got from a river in Arkansas!

❤️ Buy acrylic paints. Walmart has 2 oz bottles of acrylic paints for 50 cents – one 2 oz. bottle can last you several months up to a year. Other, more expensive paints are in the same area of Walmart so if you don’t see the 50 cent bottles at first, keep looking, they are always there. There is a larger 8 oz bottle that I’ve previously purchased for red, green and white.  I don’t recommend you buy them in that size because they are $2.50 and since they last so long they get thick and unusable before using even half of the bottle.  So a couple of smaller 50 cents in those colors will do just fine. This picture is of some new 2 oz. bottles from awhile back. There is one of the 8 oz bottles in this picture but remember I recommend two small 2 oz instead of an 8 oz.

❤️ I do not know how to paint with a paint brush, other than to put paint on a rock to cover it with color.  Therefore I mostly paint art and words with paint markers.  If this is your case then buy paint markers – Walmart has paint markers called Painters for a little over $2 each. The first picture is of the Walmart Painters.  On the marker is a circle that shows whether it is a fine tip or a regular tip. This is the brand I’ve used for two years. Be sure to shake well and push down gently making small dots until the right amount will come out.  The first time you use them the tip is white and has no paint so you will need to prime them by doing what the video below the picture shows.  I’m trying to take out some of the learning curve for ya’ll.  I learned these things by trial and error at first.

These are a couple of sets of markers purchased from Dollar Tree and Dollar General.  Both were only $1 a set.  I recommend them. Both sets have lasted a while. 

Amazon and eBay sell Posca Pens for around $3 each but if you buy them in a larger quantity than one they are at or under $2 each. These are the 21 Posca Pens that Roy gave me for Mother’s Day that were a total of $34.  I am mostly using these now.  The ones I have are all fine tip which is great for writing words and outlining what I want to fill in with paint.  My next group purchase will be medium tip pens to use with the fine tip!

❤️ Paint your rock however you want to, being sure to add an inspiring message to either the front or the back, let it dry completely (like 24 hours). One Facebook group that has step by step tutorials is How To Paint Rocks Step By Step Tutorials at https://www.facebook.com/groups/RockPaintingStepByStep/  Click on Photos and when that comes up click Albums.  You will see dozens of step by step tutorials. Google How to Paint Rocks and you’ll find more inspiration and tutorials than you can imagine!

❤️ If you wish to buy glitter glue, glitter, stencils, paint brushes. They can all be purchased cheaply at Walmart on the same aisle as the markers and acrylic paints.  A pack of cheap brushes for 97 cents for a pack of around 20 paint brushes is available at Walmart.  I just moved up to a pack for $2 and they are easier to work with.  I find glitter glue in tubes at Dollar General and Dollar Tree for $1 a pack of four or five different colored glitter glue tubes.

❤️ After the rock’s paint is COMPLETELY dry, put a coat of mod podge over all areas where you wrote on the rock with markers, sharpies, any other markers. This stops the writing or art from bleeding when you spray it. I cannot emphasize how awful it is to have a rock you’ve spent time working on ruined because of paint bleeding because I didn’t use mod podge The size I prefer is the 2 oz size that can be purchased at the Dollar Tree always for $1 and sometimes at Walmart for $1.  The larger size of mod podge bottle does what larger sizes of paint bottles do.  They get thick and icky and you wind up losing a lot of it. I can cover around 100 if not more rocks with mod podge from one $1 bottle.

❤️ Clear spray paint must be sprayed on each rock, front and back for them to endure the elements if left outside.  The first coat should be sprayed lightly from about 12 inches.  After that dries completely spray a heavier coat from around 6 inches.  Not so heavy that it drips because it will get on the opposite side which will then stick and pull paint off that side.  Not a fun thing to have happen.  Having patience during the spray cycle is key! Allow it to dry thoroughly after each coat and allow that to cure for about 24 hours before hiding them. A clear spray can be found in the paint department at Walmart, Dollar General, Lowes, Home Depot. I prefer the brand and type shown in the photo below. Its $3.97 a can and last for lots of rocks if used correctly.

❤️ If you want to post a picture of the rocks you hide you can!  I started a group on facebook called Rosie Rocks where the finders of my rocks can post pictures. It’s gained 100 new members over the last year. You can glue a message typed on paper or on the back asking them to post a photo in that group of the rock when they find it. On occasion, I will post a picture of the rocks I’m going to hide or a picture of the actual rock in its hiding place.

❤️ The labels I glue on the back or side of every rock vary.  I created three or four different sizes to fit different size rocks.  Here are a few variations. Change the size of the font or make whatever change you want. You are welcome to use what I wrote changing my name at the end for your name. That way we’d know they are yours when people post on Rosie Rocks that they found the rock.

Please post a pic on Rosie
Rocks group on Facebook!

Please post a pic on Rosie Rocks group page on Facebook!
Keep the rock or rehide! Have a blessed day, Rosalyn

Please post a pic on RVing
Rocks group on Facebook!
Keep the rock or rehide.
Have a blessed day, Rosalyn

This is what one of my label printing pages in Word looks like. Please ignore the little circle!

❤️ Once your rock is completely finished and dried at least 24 hours, hide your rock in plain sight.  Be sure NOT to put it in grass that needs to be mowed or somewhere that it would be dangerous to get to. National Forest and Parks do not like you to hide there, they will throw them away so avoid those places!  Just use common sense in where you place them. Your journey into the world of painting rocks to share kindness, joy and the love of our Lord will change as time goes on and your painting gets better!

❤️ In the beginning, I saved photos of rocks that inspired me in a folder on my computer. I recommend doing that!  My rocks may not inspire you but since you know I’m all into sharing photos, I will share in the next post some of the rocks I’ve painted and photos of some of the places I’ve hidden them!

Please let me know if you get into doing this and share some of your rock photos with on the Facebook group Rosie Rocks.  You can go there and join now so you are ready to post some of your creations, you’re already approved.  They may show up on our blog for others to enjoy!!

Please contact me via email at rosalyn@selu.edu with any questions you may have.  Keep an eye out this week for the next post which will include lots of rock pictures for inspiration!

The second part to this rock painting and hiding series can be found at PAINTED ROCK HIDING PLACES. Check it out! The third part with lots of painted rocks for inspiration can be found at ROCK PAINTING INSPIRATION.  A collection of inspiring sayings I’ve gathered can be found in Part Four (the final part of the series) ROCK PAINTING INSPIRATIONAL SAYINGS

Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!  I’m going outside to play with rocks!