How to Paint Cats on Rocks

Last week was a busy week for me, with many things that kept me away from "blogland".  I am actually in Colorado as I type this.  I flew back on Saturday and am enjoying being with Steve and catching up here.  I brought my camera this time around, so perhaps I can get some more blog posts done this trip; we'll see. I had this post almost finished on Friday, but just now got a chance to get the last little bit done.  It was definitely a fun activity.

My Grandsons got a book out of the library recently called "Pussycats Everywhere"  It is a cute funny little book that they loved reading over and over again.  Winston even memorized all the names of the cats in the book (about 30 if I remember right).  We decided to paint some cats…and decided to paint them on rocks. I googled "painting rocks" and wow what a lot of great ideas and tiny works of art. I was very inspired and  had so much fun when we began painting that I had a hard time putting the paint and rocks away when we were done and I am still thinking up ideas of how we could paint rocks.  So here is our little rock painting day.  Perhaps it will spark some fun ideas for you.

Lay out a little wax paper, or newspaper for a painting surface and gather some supplies.

I let each of the boys tell me which kind of Pussycat they wanted to paint and which rock they wanted to use. We painted together at first.

Then I let them paint.

 How to Paint Cats on Rocks

Supplies: 
smooth flat rocks
acrylic craft paint
paint brushes (don't get cheap kids brushes, get some detail brushes from the art supply store).
Q-tips
paper plates (to use as a paint pallet).
black Sharpie type marker (fine point)
wax paper
Mod Podge or clear acrylic spray paint

 You can search for rocks in your back yard or go to the dollar store and find a whole bag of them for "Guess how much?"… "haha, yes, just a dollar"; these were nice, smooth and clean; ready to go.

 Supplies

Here's how I painted the cats:
I found that starting with the tail helped me place face and paws better.

1. Dip a Q-tip in paint and swirl it down the side of the rock to make a  curling tail.

2.  Dip in paint again, then make  circles for cheeks.

3.  Dip again and make 4 smaller circles for paws that are tucked up under kitty.

4.  Paint triangles for ears.

5.  Fill in the ears with pink.

6.  Add a little pink triangle nose.

7.  Using the Q-tip again, dip it into the paint you want and make little circles for eyes.

8.  Allow to dry completely.

9.  Paint pupils with black paint using a very thin paintbrush.

10.  Allow to dry thoroughly.

11.  Put a tiny amount of white paint on a clean paintbrush, and add a dot of white to each eye and one to the nose, to create the shine accent.

12.  With the same brush, add fur and whiskers.

13. Use a paintbrush or a Sharpie type pen to add lines for toes, or any other details you like once all the paint has completely dried.

15.  Allow to dry several hours until completely dry to touch.

14.  Paint your creation with Mod Podge, or a clear Acrylic Spray to seal the paint and keep it from scratching or peeling off.

Tip:  If you don't allow the paint to dry completely before brushing on a sealer, it may smear a little such as happened to the kitty on the top right… he now has slightly green cheeks as well as eyes.

Pussycats Everywhere!

Here is the reason that the boys loved that little book so much.  He's Elizabeth's cat… well I should say He's Winston's cat (but we all sort of claim him).  He is a true work of art and a family friend… there are actually two family kitties around here, but this one always makes himself very available for photography :) Haha. Hope you all have a little fun with rocks and paintbrushes.  

Enjoy your week everyone!

Paper Flowers on Canvas

I think I must have a "thing" for paper projects; I seem to have made quite a few. I can't resist pretty scrapbook paper, so I suppose I am always drawn to just a little more, and am always mulling over something to make with it. You can make these pretty little flowers in no time, and use them to decorate walls, windows, packages, scrapbook pages, envelopes, cards, picture frames, and more.  Last week, I used them to help my grandsons make some Mother's Day presents for their Mama's.  We had so much fun creating pictures on a canvas.

Here they are strung out on a line with clothespins, or you can also sew them together like I did with these and these.  To make a canvas picture you will need the following:

You can buy pre made flowers like the ones on the left, or you can purchase a punch with the flower shapes you want, as seen top left and top right: I combined both.

Supplies:
1.  Pre-made paper flowers or
2.  Paper flower punches
3.  Scrapbook paper
4.  Glue or brads for holding flowers together
5.  Mod Podge
6.  A canvas as shown below
7.  Spray Paint to spray the canvas with.


Instructions as Follows:

1. Prepare a Canvas for your picture:

 I had painted the canvases black before the boys came over, so they were ready to go when they got here.  Black is a good color to make the picture elements pop forward.

2. Cut out flower shapes

If you purchase a flower punch,  you are always ready for a project anytime of the year. 

I got these flower punches at Hobby during one of their half off sales.

The boys had a good time punching out flower shapes.

Each of them loved taking their turn.

3. Layer and glue or attach each petal group together.

You can glue your flowers together, or layer them, pierce a hole in the center, and put a brad through the hole to make a cute center detail and hold them together without glue…. there is an example of the brad in the bottom picture on the left.

4. Glue Flowers and leaves to the canvas.

When your flowers and leaves are ready, draw a line on the canvas with paint or crayon or chalk that will represent the stem of the flower.  Next glue the flowers and leaves to the stem.

They wanted to add a little grass on the bottom as well.

We started out using chalk, for the stems and grass, but ended up using a little acrylic paint once the Mod Podge was dry, because the chalk disappeared under the Mod Podge.  You could start with paint or crayons, and allow to dry before glueing on flowers and leaves.

5. Paint over the top with a coat of Mod Podge.

6.  Allow to dry.

Allow to dry 30 minutes to an hour or maybe more, depending on how thick you paint the Mod Podge on. In these pictures, the Mod Podge  is still drying, because it went on really thick.

When these were good and dry, I helped the boys wrap them for Mother's Day for their Mamas.  They  had a great time, and were very proud to walk out the door with a present ready for Mother's Day.

Here is how it looked once the Mod Podge was completely dry.

Have fun.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there.