I have been following the Kindness Rocks Project for a while, and once the weather was nice, I prepared rocks to decorate.

You can check out the project here:

https://www.thekindnessrocksproject.com/

Be selective about where you place your rocks, as to not disturb natural areas. You can also collect your own rocks, but again, be sensitive about disturbing nature. I recommend making your own kindness rocks garden or finding places that are more urban, versus parks and other ‘leave no trace’ areas.

Materials needed:

Rocks (Home Depot – approx $11)
Spray Paint (2 colors + clear gloss – $3.87 per can)
Paint Pens (set of 12 on sale at Michaels – approx $6)

Alternately, you can find rocks meant expressly for painting on Amazon:

Kindness Rocks

I chose light colors with a more matte finish, so that the finish wouldn’t be too shiny and in the hopes it would make it easier to decorate the rocks.  I wanted light colors so that when the kids put them outside, they would stand out, but that the colors were pleasant to look at. There are so many colors of spray paint to choose from!

Kindness Rocks

I started by laying out the rocks, spacing them out to be sprayed.

Kindness Rocks

I made sure the rocks were coated enough so that the kids wouldn’t have trouble writing on them.  I allowed the rocks to dry for a couple days just to make sure the finish wouldn’t be tacky and so the rocks wouldn’t have a strong spray paint smell to them.

Kindness Rocks

Here are the rocks when they were completely dry. The first time I did this, we did it as a group activity for my girl scout troop, so we made each girl a bag of rocks to decorate.

Kindness Rocks

Then we started brainstorming on ideas for what to put on the rocks.  We talked about some kind words and things that would make someone happy if they saw it written on a rock, and the kids got to work decorating their rocks.

These are some of the rocks that have just words on them, but you could get very creative with drawings.

Kindness Rocks

The girls used a combination of Sharpie Markers and Paint pens.  Both worked well, but the paint pens were definitely something the adults had to help with because you have to shake the paint pens and depress the tips to get the paint to come out.

I decided to also use a sealer for the rocks. I don’t know that it was necessary, but I thought it would provide some more longevity to the paint and designs.

Kindness Rocks

I did have some issues with the paint bubbling on some of the yellow rocks, just like I have when refinishing wood furniture, so I recommend spraying light coats and allowing to thoroughly dry.

Kindness Rocks

Be sure to be careful about not disturbing nature or parks. We have left these in some fun

Kindness Rocks