arts and crafts

Crafting with a Purpose - Rock Painting Workshop

Crafting with a Purpose - Rock Painting Workshop
Love is action. I truly believe this. That’s why, every day, for the past five years, I’ve been painting and scattering word rocks throughout the world for people to find. Almost five years ago, my son Antonio created the Word Rocks Project. He was only ten years old at that time and wanted to spread some joy around to make people smile. We never expected the idea to grow this much, but it did. Our rocks and messages are all over the world now! And we keep trying to make people happy through our message rocks. Every day I paint two or three rocks to carry with me during the day, and it’s such a delightful process: I choose the colors, the quotes, the lettering. I paint, write and seal the rocks, with hopes that the right words will find the person who needs them. I always carry word rocks with me no matter if I'm walking my dogs, Sgt. Pepper and Hey Jude, doing groceries, mailing a letter or having a coffee with a friend. Sometimes I will even pull the car over to leave a word rock at a park or playground, just to find a nice spot to surprise someone! I collaborated with OOLY to host a rock painting workshop, Crafting with a Purpose, to share our (my son Antonio and I) story with kids and to teach them the positive value in paying kindness forward. After teaching a group of 20 kids about the project, it was rock painting time! I shared with the kids one of my favorite rock painting technique...watercolor! I love using lil' Watercolor Paint Pods to create a beautiful background on the rocks for lettering. Painting two layers of watercolor paint (letting each layer dry for about 10 minutes) will usually be enough to cover and provide a nice base for writing messages. I like to paint with two complementary colors on the rocks, then when completely dry, drawings and messages can be added! We used Ink Works, a set of five black markers that come in different nib sizes to write our positive words, quotes and messages on the rocks. For bright color, we added to our creations with liquid chalk markers and Oodles of Doodles multi-surface markers. Stickers also make cute and fun surprises on the rocks! All the kids were excited to take their word rocks out into the world to spread love and positive messages to people who need them! Follow me and OOLY on Instagram for more, and if you find a rock in the world, share a picture with #wordrocks! -- Carol from Word Rocks! Project, Love it Forward List and Love is Action Movement

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