Christmas has snuck up on me again. I try to get ahead each year, but it seems like I am never ready. I spent most of my weekend running around and doing some shopping. When I finally sat down Saturday evening, we decided it was a good time for a family movie night. The whole family was exhausted from a long week. It was my turn to pick the movie, so I picked my favorite Christmas movie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
I think I can relate to every character in the movie, but I can especially relate to Clark. Clark Griswold is trying to rally his family into having a fun old-fashioned Christmas but instead leads them straight into a hilarious disaster. After watching this movie for what is probably the thousandth time, I thought it might be fun to turn movie night into a craft night. We had a movie-themed, Christmas painted rocks activity on Sunday, and I am going to share our creations with you.
I kept the designs on these rocks simple so anyone could follow along. On all of the designs, I followed my 4Ps formula: Prime, Pencil, Paint and Protect.
Christmas Painted Rocks Design 1: The Griswold Station Wagon
This is the opening scene of the movie. The Griswolds are on their way to cut down the perfect Christmas tree to kick off the season. After they finally find the humungous tree, they have no saw to cut it down with. The next scene shows the tree strapped to the top of their late-eighties station wagon, roots and all.
Prime: I primed this rock with two coats of white acrylic paint. Priming helps to fill in holes, even out the color of the rock, and help the painted design adhere better to the rock. Allow for drying time between coats.
Pencil: I drew the station wagon with the tree strapped to the top. When I do a pencil drawing, I do not add a lot of detail. It is going to end up covered in paint and I won’t be able to see it. I always use pencil so I can erase any mistakes.
Paint: I used Posca Paint Markers for the entire project. I used a light green for the station wagon body, gray for the tires, light blue for the windows, medium green to start the body of the tree, and brown for the roots at the bottom.
Once all of that was dry, I used a black paint marker to outline all of the parts of the vehicle. I also added a brown stripe to the body and a white dot on the tires. I filled in the tree using different shades of green for the branches.
Christmas Painted Rocks Design 2: “You Serious Clark?”
Cousin Eddie joins the madness about halfway through the movie. He is the definition of an uninvited guest. The Griswolds make the best of the situation and offer to help Eddie with Christmas presents for his children. Eddie has a pretty infamous scene where he is emptying the RV waste system into a storm sewer while wearing a short bathrobe and a green winter hat with ear flaps.
Prime: I used two coats of white acrylic paint to prime this rock.
Pencil: I drew the green hat and one of Eddie’s best lines “You Serious Clark?”
Paint: Using Posca Paint markers, I colored the hat with dark green.
For the details, I outlined the hat with a fine black paint marker and added some tie strings to each side. I went over the lettering with a red marker and did some shading with a light green marker.
Christmas Painted Rocks Design 3: Aunt Bethany’s Cat
Aunt Bethany is one of the last characters we are introduced to. She shows up to the party on Christmas Eve with presents in hand. She wrapped her cat as a gift to Clark. When Clark discovers this, he quickly unwraps the gift and lets the white fluffy cat roam the house.
The curious cat starts playing with the Christmas tree during dinner. Clark and a few other guests run into the living room when they hear the cat let out a scream. They find the cat under a chair, having met his end chewing on the cord for the Christmas lights.
Prime: I used two coats of white acrylic paint and then two coats of Christmas Green acrylic paint.
Pencil: I drew the outline of the cat. I did not draw in the white fluff or the lights.
Paint: Using a black paint marker, I filled in the entire outline of the cat. Then I used a fine-tipped white paint marker to add the white cat fur to the outside.
For details, I added a cord of Christmas lights using a light green and then assorted colors for the lights. The bulbs were outlined in black.
Christmas Painted Rocks Design 4: My Favorite Quotes
At one point while Clark is hanging Christmas lights on the house, he has an incident with the ladder and ends up hanging from the house by the gutter. The gutter comes loose, and a large log of ice goes flying into the window of the house next door. The hip neighbors come home later and can’t imagine what broke their window, crashed into their expensive stereo, and left the carpet soaking wet.
Prime: I used two coats of white acrylic paint. I decided to do this quote as two sides, so I painted the entire rock.
Pencil: I just drew the holly leaves. There are two on each side of the rock.
Paint: I colored in the holly leaves with red and green. I free-handed the quote. I used nontraditional Christmas colors for this; blue and purple.
Sealing Your Christmas Painted Rocks
Protect: I sealed all four rocks at the same time using a spray-on acrylic sealer. Be sure to follow the instruction on your can of sealer. For more information on sealing rocks, please visit my article here.
I hope you are ready for Christmas! Let the spirit of the season be your inspiration for your rock painting. Merry Christmas!