There are endless possibilities to be creative when spending time with your kids. I remember how my grandparents use to make me laugh out of nothing, and also inflame my creativity starting from the most common items in the house.

This project is something pretty similar to what I used to craft as a kid. It only requires a few regular stones and a bit of paint to craft the most harmless cacti you would ever own. It’s about rock painting.

So, keep reading to discover the instructions!

The Supplies

Regular stones in any color would work for this project, if they are shaped like a small cacti – they have to be long or round like a sphere. You need a few more things, but let’s make the complete supply list, as follows:

• landscape stones
• acrylic paint – green, yellow, red, white,
• a thin black marker,
• a cup of sand
• a small pot for “planting” the cacti
• a spray varnish,
• a cloth and some rubbing alcohol
• a glue gun (optional)

You can also use some paper scraps to craft small flowers and add them to the green bush, at the end of the project.

Crafting the Cacti

Wash the stones and let them dry. Wipe them with a cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol to be sure that you have a perfectly clean surface to paint on.

Apply a coat of green paint and let dry. If you don’t want to paint your fingers too, leave a small part uncovered so you would know which end to plant.

You can add a pinch of yellow to the green, in order to get different shades of green for your cacti. Use red paint for the smallest rocks, to turn them into flowers or a different type of plants. Ad light green lines on your cacti or white dots to imagine textures, edges and spikes.

In the end, use the black marker to add details and make the cacti look more real.

Once the paint in dry, splash a coat of varnish on your cacti, to prevent the paint from getting dirty and protect it from moist and sunlight.

Planting the Cacti

The next step is to plant the cacti in the pot. Add sand to the half of the pot, and place the rocks one by one on top if it, gently pushing against the soil. Add sand to cover their ends and make them gain a stable position.

Here’s a trick in case you can’t make them stick: use the glue gun to add a pinch of glue between the rocks, and build a stable arrangement before the last sand addition.

There are so many ways you can paint these tiny cacti that I cannot imagine. You can draw thin spikes, or white bubbles on them, small colored flowers on the top, or simple thin lines with dots here and there.

Ask your kids for help, as they always have a plethora of creative ideas!

If you are passionate about this type of crafts, then here are a few tips on rock painting that might help you get the best out of every painting project:

• Choose rocks that have a smooth surface so you could easily cover them with paint.
• Be careful about their texture: if they are too porous, then it’s more likely for the ink to bleed when adding details. You can prevent this from happening by covering the rock with a base coat of paint, but still expect to have difficulties in adding small details.
• Avoid rocks that are fairly soft and can crumble easily, like limestone, sandstone or flagstone.
• Work on a few rocks at time, so you could continue painting on a rock while another one is drying.
• Use the shape of the rock to create awesome drawings and creatures.

So, get ready for the next generation of cacti on your porch!

Did you like this project?

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