Pebble-Dashed!

Its fair to say that when I find a new thing to make, it becomes an obsession...at least for a while, so we'll see how long before I get bored of this one..

Pebble / Stone / Rock Painting

There has been a craze going around Basingstoke recently called "Basingstones" where people paint a stone or rock with a pattern or picture, or just paint it a colour and add some words. The stone is left somewhere for someone to find, and they post it on the Facebook 'Basingstones' or 'Hidden Rocks' pages.  Some of them are amazing, so I thought I'd have a go at painting some pebbles myself.

For my friends's Birthday in April I decided to have a go at a painting a stone with a Beatrix Potter design, because she loves Peter Rabbit.  This is how it turned out and I was pretty happy with it.  She was over the moon with it apparently. :)

I was using alcohol pens over a chalk paint base, and trying to get a watercolour feel and sealing with water-based varnish.  I liked the result, but it would not stand up to being outdoors.  

For my Sister's birthday I wanted to make her something for her garden.  She's big into her vegetable patch at the moment, she's done amazing things, creating it from scratch and spending every spare minute in the greenhouse.  So I decided to make her some plant markers for her seedlings.  The plan was originally to make 6, but unfortunately I ran out of time as it was harder than I thought.  So I settled for four. 

I would have to use exterior varnish for these to stand any chance of surviving the outdoors, so I would not be able to use alcohol pens.  I decided to bite the bullet and have a go at painting in Acrylic - not something I'm particularly comfortable with.  I also decided I would leave the backgrounds in the natural stone.  This is what I came up with...

I started with a Tomato, which bar a few teething problems went quite well, so then I got a bit cocky and tried a Raddish which was a NIGHTMARE!  It was way harder to paint than I thought it would be!

The Carrot was surprisingly easy after this, and the Courgette wasn't too bad either.  

By this time I was just about getting the hang of mixing and applying the paints.  

With four finished I gave them a coat of outdoor varnish, which was supposed to be clear but wasn't and after 3 coats was starting to affect the whites, but luckily I think for these, it gave a warmth that worked quite well.

My Sis took some photos for me in her veggie patch and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I'd love to know what you think...

Coming soon... Pebble-Painting obsession continues with a new theme - 

'Natural History'...! :)