Kids crafts Painted rocks tutorial

Painted pebble cactus plants

painted pebble cactus plants - the gingerbread house

I’ve been having lots of fun crafting recently, I know I always say that but this is supposed to be a craft blog. I love looking through my photo stream and seeing the photos of all my makes. My children have been keeping me busy lately but I still found time to make some painted pebble cactus plants with them. I would love to keep some succulents but when I went to buy some I got a handful of needles. Instead I thought it would be fun to make some kid-friendly versions.

My 5 year old helped me paint some pebbles to make some kid-friendly cactus plants. We collected some lovely smooth pebbles on a recent beach holiday and this was a really fun activity. I think they will also be a great addition to our fairy garden.

We used some lovely smooth pebbles we collected from the beach and painted them red and green with acrylic paint.

painted pebblesWe gave them two coats to make sure we couldn’t see any of the original colour, then added some tiny white spots of paint to look like spines.

painted pebble cactusThis was quite tricky for my 5 year old but he did a great job. Then we left them to dry before painting the other side.

painted pebble cactusOnce they were dry we found some miniature pots, added a ball of plasticine and pressed the pebbles in.

painted pebble cactusThey look really cute in their miniature pots. My son added the Playmobil boy for scale 🙂

pebble cactus plantsThen we mixed it up by placing them in one pot.

pebble cactus plants - the gingerbread house

I think they look pretty realistic and not bad for a joint effort. I love succulents and am still hankering for some real ones. Perhaps I will try to make some felt ones soon.

10 Comments

  • Reply
    Rachel Bustin
    May 26, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    A fantastic idea! I love all types of succulents and cacti and have quite a few around the house. But these painted ones are ideal for when kiddies are around! xx

  • Reply
    Let kids be kids
    May 27, 2015 at 9:22 am

    Oh they look so cute!
    Thanks for sharing #LetKidsBeKids

  • Reply
    Mum of One
    May 27, 2015 at 12:50 pm

    These are so pretty! Thanks so much for sharing with this week’s #pinitparty. I have pinned.

  • Reply
    Micaela Levachyov
    May 28, 2015 at 4:36 pm

    These are so sweet and far less spiky than their real counterparts!

  • Reply
    Wendy
    May 29, 2015 at 9:08 am

    These look fab – will definitely give them a try with the kids 🙂

  • Reply
    Gude @HodgePodgeCraft
    May 29, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    How cute are these?! And safe for little hands to hold 🙂
    Thank you for sharing at #Pintorials x

    • Reply
      jenny
      May 29, 2015 at 10:09 pm

      Thanks, we love succulents but they’re definitely not child-friendly!

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