If you children are anything like mine then they will always return form an outing with some sort of treasure. We are lucky to live five minutes from a beach and I have to check the boys pockets each time we come home as they always have stones in them.
Stones or beach pebbles are so tactile and make a great crafting and activity material and I am going to be using them for this week’s something for the weekend, so do come back on Friday to see what we have been doing with the ones they collected this weekend.
One of our most favourite things to do with stones is to add them to our memory jar.
Fab materials for working with stones
Memory Stones
Memory stones are so simple to make, but are perfect for using to encourage crafting and also to help instill memories in children. We make them each summer to record what we have done and the boys adore making them.
All you need are some pens, sharpies are great for this and some stones, oh and a jar to put them in.
We like to place them in a clear jar so we can look at them and watch as they increase over the summer.
Story Stones
When I saw this great activity over at Happy Hooligans I knew I had to include it. You do not need any artistic ability just some pictures and glue. Jackie explains how she did it, so go and take a look.
Stone Pets
The boys made these stone pets way back in 2009 when they were only 4 and 3! They have really stood the test of time and are so simple to make.
Materials:
- Stones
- Acrylic paint
- Paintbrushes
- Googly eyes
- Glue
Method:
- Paint the stones with acrylic paint and allow to dry.
- Use different colour paint to add your decorations
- Glue on eyes
If we make these again, I will varnish them with a clear polyurethane varnish so we can put them in the garden.
This post is part of Cratulate’s guide to 50 craft materials.
I love these ideas, we have made stone bugs before- but the memory stones and story stones are brilliant yet simple!
Sonya Cisco » Life is busy enough without complex crafts!
Turning pets into stones is a great memory from my childhood! We live close to the beach too so I can’t wait for my daughter to start toddling so that we can spend more time there!
Lauren » The beach is our happy place as a family.
Love this craft idea, I’ll definitely be doing it with the kiddos in half term, thanks 🙂
Em @ snowingindoors » We love collecting the pebbles
What great ideas – I am loving the story stones idea.
Pinkoddy » I know they are fab and so easy to make
What wonderful ideas! We have LOADS of stones and pebbles from the beach…. Definitely giving this a go at half term 🙂
Love this post! I’ve been wanting to do stone painting for ages, but never found the right kind of stones!
Fab ideas- most helpful for those of us who live by a beach full of them:) I’ve linked up a stone post of mine and one by someone else – just because it’s a fab idea and have to share!
What a lovely idea!
A lovely idea, my big girls loves coming home with stones.
These are great ideas, and the bright colours (and inspirational sayings on the damsonlane post) really made me enthusiastic to do this with my lot. We don’t do much crafting because we’re outside so much but this is a great way to bring the outside in with us. We currently live on the shores of Lake Ontario and the kids are ALWAYS bringing beautiful pebbles home – this is a great way to imbue them with memories. Have bookmarked 🙂
This reminds me of sitting on a beach with Jennie from Cheetahs in my Shoes, scribbling on stones with our kids. A lovely craft!
Fabulous ideas great for my reception class .
Fantastic ideas, we’ve done story stones before and sharpie critters. When the kids have finished with them you can crochet them too! X
What fantastic ideas! Simple enough for little ones to do and very creative. x
Great post! I love stones, they are so tactile and nice to hold…some really great ideas here, thank you for sharing.
Brilliant idea. I have a pot full of stones ready and waiting !
I love stones and stone crafts. The stone pets are adorable.
I am so pleased to read this, thank you for posting. I saw some stones painted as vegetable garden markers and I thought this would make a great joint activity. It’s lovely to have a few more ideas too.
I love the brine smoothed stones that we find at the beach, but short of collecting them and keeping them, it’s hard to know what to do with them. Now I do! These are some great ideas! I see some ladybug stones in our very near future 🙂
What a lovely idea – I especially like the memory stones. The next time we go to a beach, we’ll be collecting so we can make some memories.
This is such a great idea, I love it. We always come back with lots of stones too, and sea glass. I love sea glass. x
I visited my old village last week and they have a shingle beach – I may have borrowed some stones to bring home and decorate with the kids
We have so many stones in our house and we always get one from a beach wherever we go. We layer them in a glass vase and it looks really pretty x x
Oh I love the story stones Jenny! I have stone monsters to link up.
Wow, your stone pets look amazing!
I was trying to pick my fav but they are all so awesome!!!
They’re lovely – such a great idea. Going to try with the kids. Pinned