Skeleton Painted Rocks
This “bag of bones” is the perfect rock painting craft for beginners. All you need are some rocks and black and white paint pens. Paint pens make it really easy to draw and paint on rocks! Kids will love putting the rock pieces together like a puzzle (my 7 and 10 year olds really enjoyed it!). You can also turn your bag of bones into a scavenger hunt. Hide the rocks and give a small prize for finding them all. Our little skeleton buddy may not be entirely anatomically correct, but it’s still super cool to play with the rocks and arrange the bones. The more rocks you use, the more funny positions you can put the skeleton in!
Check out our Halloween Painted Rocks video tutorial:
*Note: Scroll down for the step-by-step photo tutorial.
Halloween String Art Cards No-Sew Halloween Plushies Lolly Pop Ghosts
Here’s what you’ll need:
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Black rocks White paint pen Black fine tipped paint pen Burlap bag (We used a wedding favour bag from Michaels)
Where can I get rocks?
You may also be able to get them from a landscaping company, garden centers, or Home Depot – although you might need to buy a large bag. “Mexican beach pebbles” are the perfect stones for rock painting.
What type of paint pens should I use?
We recommend oil based paint markers, since they’re long lasting and don’t leave streaks. You can also use water based paint pens, if that’s what you have, but the paint will chip off fairly easily unless you use a sealer.
Do I need to outline the white paint?
No, you don’t have to outline the white bones, but it really helps clean up the bone shapes if your paint lines don’t look straight. The black outline really makes the bones “pop” off the rock. Either way, you will still need the black paint pen to draw the skeleton’s mouth.
How can I paint on the burlap bag?
We used a thin brush and liquid acrylic paint to write “Bag of Bones” on our burlap bag. If you don’t want to draw it freehand you could use letter stencils. You can also write on the burlap with a regular Sharpie marker. We tried painting on the burlap bag with our paint pens, but it just didn’t work well. The lines were too faint and the paint pens didn’t fill in the gaps in the burlap. Plus the tips were creating a lot of fuzz on the bag.
These Halloween painted rocks are bad to the bone! Black rocks look great with the white skeleton, but if you have white or gray rocks you can paint them another fun Halloween colour, like orange or purple.
Here’s even more spooktacular Halloween crafts:
Halloween String Art Cards
No-Sew Halloween Plushies
Lolly Pop Ghosts
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
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