Pebble painting

We bought a kit for £2.99 from The Range when holiday with our GC recently. It even has the pebbles in it . Our GS used it and loved it, he's 7 .

Hello Jacksmum
Yes, I pebble paint every year with the GC's. Wecollect largish, smooth pebbles and wash and dry them.
Then we make a design with soft pencil and fill in with felt tips or acrylic paint.
The younger ones like to do cheeky patterns but the older ones do quite intricate pictures.
We do one every year with the date and the holiday destination...its amazing how these mount up and its a lovely record for the future.
Enjoy it all.

Another pebble painter here ! My DGC have created the most wonderful pebble cactus plants . Placed at different heights in little plant pots filled with sand and topped with fine grit they look really effective .

I used to do a lot - when we went on holiday to West Wales I used to bring a few suitable pebbles back and paint on them. I gave a lot away, and threw a lot away. The only one I have now is this one, and the only lesson I can offer is don't paint on chalk pebbles, because eventually they will flake, as this one is doing! It's a great idea for kids - I didn't know you could buy kits.

I noticed GC had done some last week, good idea for the holidays.

I love collecting pebbles on the beach, i only take a few, but like to paint them and put a date / place on but not sure what sort of pens to use as after i write on the stone they tend to run a bit.
Also do i use a clear varnish afterwards?
Any advice please?

I used acrylic paint. A coat of clear varnish tends to enhance the colours but it isn't essential.

Wow! How clever you are greyduster. I wasn't born with a talent for art.

That is beautiful Greyduster, could you not varnish with something that will hold the stone together? It would be a pity to lose that - he is gorgeous!

Very impressed Greyduster.

How beautiful Greyduster.

Thanks for the heads-up re the kit Nannandgrampy. With summer holidays ahead it might be the answer to a grandma's prayer .
Your pebble is lovely, Greyduster. Wish we had an'envy' emoji

WOW greyduster!

Thank you all for all your replies ,they have all been helpful , i am really looking forward to getting going with this new hobby and making memories with the GC over summer holidays xx

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration. Seen some great pebbles and rocks that have been painted.

I've found that sleeping curled up cats are a fairly easy subject which lends itself well to rounded pebbles. Use fair large ones or it gets too intricate.

When my daughter got married, I volunteered to paint pebbles as place markers for the tables. We got smooth pebbles from the beach, washed and dried them, and then I painted 80 (!) pebbles. I used acrylic paints, which are water soluble and can be painted over if you want to change a bit. I was advised that varnish wouldn't actually enhance the appearance so I just left the paint as it was. You can get gold and silver metallic paints to give a bit of a sheen if you want. I generally tried out the design on paper first; then I would just brush the outline onto the stone with water, to see how it would all fit on - the marks lasted just long enough for me to block out the design with paint.
I painted each person's name, and then tried to personalise the pebble with something relevant to them: a musical instrument, an animal, a flag, a national emblem (Welsh dragon, thistle), a hobby (football, Minecraft) etc. If I was stuck I just painted something pretty like a rainbow. People loved them and photographed them and kept them as souvenirs. I really enjoyed doing them and it cost next to nothing.
My grandkids wanted to try it afterwards so I let them use my paints on some spare pebbles. Grandson (age 7) painted the whole stone black and said it was "a bomb". He gave it as a present to his best friend!

grannyticktock a bomb! Lucky he wasn't arrested with it. ?

He wanted to paint a whole set of them to give out to his friends at his birthday party. His Mum gently dissuaded him - thank goodness, otherwise he might have been on the terrorist watch-list!

GS found a painted stone on holiday a couple of years ago, it was dropped as a 'gift' for someone to find, there was a FB page that you could go to. GD spent a happy morning painting and leaving for people to find. I have noticed that some towns in the US are doing this kind of treasure hunt. Sounds like a good idea. I have painted a few this week, with some ideas that I picked up on You Tube. Have an owl, fox and turtle. The turtle is so so, but the other two are OKish. Great fun to do with children and you can get acrylic paints quite cheaply. I do think that a spray of varnish brings them to life. I have a fine glitter spray that I picked up in a craft shop, which adds a bit of pixie dust.

Hi have plenty of pebbles in our garden,
so I bought some acrylic paint pens from Amazon with the idea of hiding painted stones around my garden for my little grandsons to find.
Looked on Pinterest for some ideas.

However not as easy as I envisaged.
Why am I surprised??
Don't have an artistic bone in my body!

The result was some painted pebbles that a six year old could have made a bettrr job of!

Plan B I have now purchased some graphite tracing paper (who knew such a thing existed before Pinterest ).
Will now trace an image and fill in with acrylic pens.

Plan C. Just let my DGS's loose with the pebbles and pens

I am in awe of all you artistic Grans

Having read this thread, I decided it would be a great activity for my grandchildren (4 & 6). A few weeks ago, we collected up stones and pebbles in my garden, I got out the their paints, and off they went. It kept them amused for ages. I will suggest it again soon, as I have quite a lot of days with them before the school hols end.