Make a rock town! This is a fun and easy rock painting activity inspired by The Rock Art Handbook which was gifted to us by Samantha Sarles of Color Made Happy blog.

Have you gotten into the rock painting craze yet? We’ve been experimenting with some of the rock painting ideas in the Rock Art Handbook, a new book just released by Samantha Sarles from the gorgeous Color Made Happy blog.

Rock painting is very soothing and calming. Maybe it’s something to do with how long rocks have been here on earth, they’ve taken millions of years to look and form the way they have and seem to exude a calm sort of energy – or is that just me? In any case, many kids are attracted to rocks and like to collect them, my own kids included so we already had a stash of smooth river rocks to create with using the Rock Art Handbook.

My daughter and I enjoyed looking through the book at all of the inspiring ideas – it includes so many colourful and easy ways to decorate rocks!

Miss K, aged almost 9, wanted to try the galaxy rock painting. She had a gloriously messy time decorating rocks to look like the galaxy, and then she was inspired to come up with a few more rock painting ideas of her own. Aren’t they adorable? The “Shark Rock” is my favourite.

I took one look at the tiny rock art houses in the Rock Art Handbook and knew that I wanted to make some. My rock art houses turned into a whole rock art town, and I created a little paper map with a road and little driveways to place the miniature houses. My houses are nowhere near as pretty as the ones in the book, which are beautifully detailed just like little fairy houses. Still, it was fun making them and the girls love how they turned out.

This would be a great project to do with kids of all ages (even grown ups!), and would make a fun collaborative art/craft idea where each person designs and paints a rock house or two to make up a town. You could even make a drawstring felt bag to store them in to keep for play, similar to the one I made for our Weather and Garden Rocks.

How to make Rock Art Houses

You will need

• Smooth river stones, washed and dried
• Acrylic Paint
• Gel pens
• A sheet of dark coloured paper for the road (I’ve used black card stock)

How to

Paint your rocks white, and allow to dry. This will keep the colours you paint on nice and bright.
Paint the Initial base colours of the houses roofs and walls, and allow to dry
Paint squares, archways or circles for the windows and doors, and allow to dry
Use a gel pen to draw in details
Make a road by placing the rocks where you would like to on a sheet of dark paper and drawing two lines for a driveway under each. Remove the rocks and draw roads and other details around them

We loved the calming activity of Rock Painting, and seriously love Sam’s new book! You can get your copy here.

More fun ideas for creating with rocks

• Make some yummy-looking rock cakes for pretend play tea parties
• These mixed media flower rocks are fun for all ages to make
• Use rocks in the natural environment to create earth art
• These fluffy pet rocks are super cute
• You can even make your own ochre paint from rocks!