Rocking again this summer...

Nope, I didn't manage a single festival this year but I did find some pretty cool rocks and stones this summer. That's Zac and I at Burgh Island picking out some lovely flat slatey stones...

I have also found some fantastic pens which have opened up another world of rock related crafts to me! I could barely contain my excitement about these pens and having been telling everyone I meet about them...

The pens are called Posca by Uni and I got them from my local craft shop Creative Crafts.

There was a choice of pens and I went for these bullet tip, fine line, permanent pens. They are great for the kids as mine are a bit too young for effective stone painting...although they are permanent so watch out for that! If you want them shiny use Mod Podge or watered down PVA to protect your art!

Other ideas for these brilliant pens...

• You could add some googly eyes and make them into pets.
• We made some noughts and crosses stones which can be left in the garden - you can make the grid out of sticks. 
• Apparently they also write well on wellies, so personalising some cheap supermarket wellies could be good fun. 
• I also tried these pens on glass and they worked really well although would eventually come off something that was being used a lot and washed up. Excellent for making jars into tea light holders though. We'll be getting some spooky colours out and making some for Halloween no doubt about it.
• Mary's idea was to find enough flatish stones and write people names to use as place markers at the table.
• I just love the thought of bringing a few stones home from your holidays and writing where and when they were from on the back or the front.

Have you got any good ideas for these pens?

Nix :)

Story stones from Red Bird Crafts...

I finally got to make some decorated stones with Gabe today...it was great fun. Makes a nice change from colouring and stickers and less messy than painting (honestly!). I did the cutting, he did the gluing and placed some of the fabric, he also decided what we were making. I think little girls could especially get into this!
The site that the idea and the instructions came from is here but you don't have to use Mod Podge (it's not widely available in the UK so will end up costing you around £10). I just used watered down PVA. I will need to put another layer on once this layer has dried as some of my fabrics were quite thick...a good idea to soak thicker fabrics in the glue mix if you can, or at least paint some glue on the back of the fabric, as well as the front and on the stone.

Happy rainy August days! Nix! 

Stones...

My friend Alice over at Mrs Maker blogged about beautiful decorated stones the other day (she saw them here)...I am in awe and just waiting for my pot of ‘mod podge’ to arrive so I can get started. It looks amazing!! As well as making some name stones and some picture stones, I am going to make stone noughts and crosses to play with on the beach using sticks or marks in the sand as the grid. I can’t wait to sew a little pouch to keep them in.

So Alice’s blog post made me think about how much I love stones too...I am quite picky about my stones though. When we search for them on the beach I like particular shapes and an evenness of colour and texture...I sit looking for stones all around me with my bucket at my feet while the children run around collecting. They show me their offerings and they get a stock answer...either ‘accept’ and then I throw the stone in my bucket or ‘reject’ and then I throw the stone over my shoulder. The anticipation is tense and dramatic. They love waiting to see if they have found a good one, stone perfection. Sometimes they try to get me ‘pretend’ cross by bringing me ugly duds and watching them fly over my shoulder with the cry ‘reject!’ getting louder! Last time we did this, loads of other children started getting in on the action and bringing their stones for assessment, in the end we had to stop not least because it is never a good idea to throw stones over your shoulder when surrounded my children!*

Zac last August on Charmouth Beach (stone heaven)

So, I think I first fell for stones during my A-level art course at secondary school. I did a project on Andy Goldsworthy and I loved his work with perfect stones and beautiful leaves and mounds of earth and ice and wood...you get the idea.

I used to love to tower the stones up and leave them for people to look at and knock over. I also admire the skill of the stone balancers. There is this one guy that comes along to the beach in Lyme Regis in the summer, what a skill to feel the distribution of weight in a lump of rock and balance it like that.

Other things I have done with stones include....

Crocheting a cover for a stone...I followed the pattern I found here. I know it sounds mad and it’s definitely one of the crafty moments Ed (and a fair few others) have completely failed to ‘get’. (Please note, if you love this and decide to go for it yourself, do read through the comments section of this link first as there are a couple of errors corrected in there).

Stone decorating with the children at Gabe’s 4^th Birthday party this year...all inspired by the best stone story ever...

'Bonting' by Shirley Hughes...If you like stones you MUST read your children this sweet and beautifully illustrated story from the ‘The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook’. My boys love it. So anyway, thanks to Alice for reminding me of stones and leading me to this cool project and hurry up my mod podge!

Byeeeeee. Nix

* No children were physically or emotionally hurt in this stone hunt...Everyone got at least one ACCEPT! after a little coaching on the qualities of a fine stone!