Our family has always really enjoyed collecting rocks — not so much rocks of any special beauty or composition, but from places we wanted to remember. Eventually, we ended up with a quite a few river rocks, with flat, smooth surfaces. Those rocks actually work great with the ideas from The Art of Stone Painting. It’s really nice to make those rocks into mini art works by painting designs, creatures, and scenes like those suggested in this beautiful book. The instructions are clear and engaging, while the photos are lovely and inspiring.

One unique idea that stood out to me in this book was that by outlining the painted details with a fineliner pen, it really makes the colors and design pop. Also, using paint pens really helps to add the paint into small areas. I’m surprised by how just starting with one small part at a time, we can eventually create beautiful designs, plants, animals, or what-have-you. Simple instructions and suggestions for paints and pens are very helpful, and by emulating a few of her patterns, my family and I are all surprised by how lovely the results can be. Rock painting has become a really fun family activity for us all.

We had a great time finding our rocks in our yard that would make a perfect canvas for painting on. We used craft paints with small brushes, black fineliner pens to outline, and white gel pens to add details. We found a shell shaped rock to make a pretty shell and my daughter did a really great job creating a cute cactus design on an oblong shaped rock.