Beach, Birthday, Craft Activities, Family, Garden, Penny Saving Mum, Rainbow, Shapes, Special Events
Happy Pebbles
Making your very own ‘Happy Pebbles’ is a great, simple and inexpensive craft activity to. Not only are they fun and creative to make, they could also make sweet and thoughtful gifts for family and friends.
Happy Pebbles also have practical uses as well as they can be used as paper weights or weights for picnic blankets or towels. They make a lovely ornament, decoration or keepsake from a special memory too!
What makes the pebbles ‘happy’ is the fact that you can put motivational, uplifting or inspiring quotes or messages on them!
Check out my Homemade Salt Dough Birthday Cake Number Toppers here which you can also decorate and paint!
To make your Happy Pebbles you will need the following:
1. Some clean pebbles or rocks
2. A selection of coloured paints and paint brushes (acrylic paints work especially well but this will need adult supervision as they can stain). Stick to water-based paints if involving young children in the craft activity. A great alternative to the usual acrylic paints, is to use these fantastic acrylic paint pens. They help you paint more accurate and detailed pictures!
3. A permanent marker pen (optional)
4. Varnish to seal in your design and to help make it water-proof (especially for outdoor use but optional)
5. Optional craft extras to decorate may include: glitter glue, stick on gems, sequins, stickers, feathers or even small photos of your loved ones which you could glue to your pebble before varnishing.
Step 1
Make sure your rocks are clean by washing them with warm soapy water and allow them to dry in the sun.
Step 2
Prepare your painting and decorating area by putting down some old newspapers, an old blanket or even better, do the craft outdoors to help minimise the mess!
Then the painting fun can begin! Paint your Happy Pebbles in a variety of colours and allow them to dry. Depending on the type of paint you use, you may wish to give them more than one coat. This will almost certainly apply for any water-based paints. Acrylic paints are much brighter and you will need less of these.
After painting, place your Happy Pebbles in a dry and well ventilated area until they are dry to the touch. If possible, leave them for a few hours if not overnight before checking.
Here are the Happy Pebbles that I made and their various designs.
Step 3
Once your Happy Pebbles are completely dry, you can start to add some smaller creative details to them such as patterns, dots, lines, people and text.
Adding happy, motivational words and phrases to the pebbles is exactly what makes them ‘Happy Pebbles’. Add smiley faces, hearts and stars to make a lovely gift for a friend.
Step 4
Once you are happy with all the smaller details and text that you have added to your Happy Pebbles, then you may wish to varnish them to seal in your designs and help to make them both water-proof and weather-proof.
I really hope that you enjoy making your very own Happy Pebbles at home. A lovely way to decorate your garden, make a personalised gift for family and friends or simply a colourful paper weight for your office.
