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Cute & Easy Crafts for Kids

Kids Craft: 8 Rock Monsters & a Ladybird

crafting with stonesWell.. today we deWelcome back to today’s Kids Crafts! Today, we have a super duper simple craft, but it is one that my children never tire of.. Stone Monsters!! Nice and easy and lots of fun! They are tactile, bright and suitable for all ages to have a go (just moderate what paint you use). This is also a VERY special Kids Crafts post, as I am sharing this with the crazy and adorable lady over at Mammasaurus.

Mammasaurus has brilliantly creative blog and every Wednesday she challenges you to some Guerilla Marketing: Make something. Tag it. Hide it in public. Wait for someone to find it! And hopefully come and visit your site. She calls it #W?W (“What the? Wednesday”). She even got one at the top of a building site before! I love love love her cheeky onion and Pine Cone Man – the person who found him, even posted a picture of him in his new home on Mammasaurus’s FB page!

So we made extra stone Monsters… and then went and hid them in our park. I tried to make something that the animals wouldn’t nibble by accident. Hopefully the googly eyes will not be a problem!

First our book.

The Book

Two Monsters Two Monsters, By David McKee (affiliate link)

Well.. there is was really only one book we could choose: Two Monsters! We love this little book. It is great right now for Red Ted, as he is really appreciating the subtlies of a difference of opinion. It is about two monsters, sitting on either side of a mountain. They talk to each other through a hole that runs the length of the mountain. One day they start and argument: the one monster says that “day is departing” and the other monster says that “night is arriving” – who is right (both of course), but it takes a rock throwing fight that destroys the mountain for them to realise this!  Great story about seeing things differently and reconciliation!

The Craft

Well.. if you have wee ones, than this is the craft for you. We used acrylics (as they stay on), but they are messy. If you are not quite brave enough for that (fair enough – not really sure why I do it!), mix normal poster paint with some PVA glue (a la Mr Maker) or paint normally varnish the stones after they have dried. One word of warning: be sure you finish these BEFORE bedtime. We waited for ours to dry overnight, then I got a 6am wake up call to finish off the googly eyes. Not fun.

Materials: Stones, acrylic paint, googly eyes, glue, sharpy pens (optional for decorating)

 painting rock monsters crafting with stones

crafting with stones

1) Paint your stones. We chose pink and blue (see book). I find if you mix a little white in with your colours, the paint applies more smoothly. Plus we like some of the patterns it creates if you don’t mix it up “fully”

rock craft monster rock craft monster

2) Let dry. Glue on googly eyes.

3) With Sharpie pens add some details. Red Ted made a spotty one and a hairy one and decided to leave two plain. Pip Squeak made all of hers hairy and added mouths and noses (yes she did… I know where they are, honest).

 outdoor activities for kids

4) If you are releasing some of yours to the wild… make sure you discuss this element of the craft. Mine are very reluctant to “lose” anything they have made. But they loved the idea of sharing them in the park. We made 8, so we could hide 4….. Mark the back of your stones with your website address, and a message. Ideally add #W?W – I confess to forgetting (and running out of space)!

outdoor activities for kids

5) Go for a walk and hide……… Oh.. and we had made some ladybirds previously.. one which decided to join us on our adventure!

outdoor activities for kids outdoor activities for kids

outdoor activities for kids 

We had so much fun in the park. Even the other children we met up with wanted to help us hide our monsters! Red Ted is now keen to go back and see whether anyone has found them!

Filed Under: Kids Craft, Nature, Stones 38 Comments

Comments

  2. Red Ted Art says

    Thank you MaryAnn, yes, they did rather enjoy it… and they went off and collected more stones the next day. Coloured them with pens and added more googly eys.. all of their own accord!

    Reply

  16. Keitha says

    Cute rock monsters! Love the idea of hiding them for someone else to find. Reminds me of Color Me Katie. She makes all sorts of things and puts them in public places.

    Reply

    • Red Ted Art says

      Oh yes! We had fun. We enjoyed going back to the park a week later to see whether they are still there. They were not. So we made up stories as to where they may have gone (the preferred one was that they ALL went home with the bear).

      Reply

  19. MiaB says

    This is AWESOME!!! My daughter loves to pick up rocks and she would love this activity… Such a great idea. Would really love it if you could share this with us at Sharing Saturday -http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com/2012/01/sharing-saturday-3.html

    Have a great weekend,
    MiaB

    Reply

  24. Karla says

    Hi! I thought you might want to take this monster rock painting to the next level and participate in a free global art and collaborative storytelling project: http://www.rockthoughts.com.

    So far, we have over 500 rocks in 15 countries. There is no age limit and no experience necessary. Just loads of imagination are required. This is a great project for little ones!

    We hope you\\\’ll come play.

    – K

    Reply

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