Rock painting

Rock painting has become a very popular activity for children but whatever your age incorporating colourful painted rocks into your fairy garden is a fun way to add an extra element to your fairy display.

In the pot above I used painted stones to structure the compost in layers. The stones can help hold back soil and cover bare earth. They also look great in rockeries. They can be used alongside pebbles and chippings to decorate around succulent plants, water features and fairy houses.

You can pick up smooth pebbles from your garden centre or you may find some stones in your own garden. You can also get pebbles from our rock painting kits, found in our kits and crafts collection which include stones, paint and instructions.

First clean your rock/pebble of loose dirt. Draw on your outline of your fairy or gnome with a permanent marker. Don't worry about details. Keep it simple and you can always add the finer details later. 

You don't have to be the greatest artist to create a special affect. I have left faces blank and left off hands and feet but an impression is often better than a realistic image. Unless you are a well-versed artist too much detail in your rock painting can lead to a clumsy look. 

I have used our starlights metallic paint, which gives a lovely glittery sheen ideal for fairies. This paint dose not wash out in the rain, however will fade over time, so I suggest sealing in with clear vanish.

You don't just have to stick to fairies and gnomes for your fairy garden. There are plenty of other ideas to paint and ways to make your garden unique. Rock painting allows everyone in the family to put their stamp on a fairy garden.

Another simple method, which looks great in a fairy garden is to paint your rock red and when dry add white spots. Looking down on this is makes a good spotty toadstool. Or you could paint a fairy door and lean it against your garden wall.

You could also just paint small stones one colour, which you could use to make a path to your fairy house. Again the starlight colours are really pretty for this and should keep their colour for some time.

If you enjoy this project and paint excess stones there are other ways to use them. For example, in some local communities children paint rocks to hide in the local park for other children to find and take home. These children in turn paint a rock to replace the one they have borrowed, which really nurtures that sense of community.

At this time Covid 19 has restricted where children can play and handling found stones might be discouraged. However, in my local area there is an initiative encouraging stones to be left alongside a path to be viewed by others taking their daily walk. The painted pebbles form a path of hope in appreciation of key workers, and of course we had to add one of our fairy painted rocks.