“Be” Words – Hide and Seek Rocks with Kindness Messages
Hide and Seek with Painted Rocks
Cooler weather is here! In Oklahoma, the summer temperature can easily soar over 100 degrees. We all yearn for the heat to break and bring the cooler fall weather. With that cooler weather, more outdoor activities follow.
We love to visit a local garden that is owned by our city. They change the beds out for each season. The walking trail through the garden is truly remarkable. Then, in the wintertime, the garden becomes a brilliant display of Christmas lights. Anyone who visits can appreciate the amount of work that goes into the garden.
The winding walking trails become a favorite place for rock hiding. My kids love to go over to the garden and play hide and seek with painted rocks. We bring several rocks to hide and normally come home with several others that we will re-hide at a later date.
A favorite type of rock to hide in the garden is a kindness rock. These rocks spread positive messages to those who find them. We decided that the three of us would each paint a rock (myself, my youngest son and my youngest daughter) and we would have a theme.
My daughter thought that it would be neat to start all of our rocks with the same letter. An thus the be rocks were born. We decided on Be Brave, BeYOUtiful, and Believe.
Here is some more information on kindness rocks – Rock Rembrandt Introduction to Kindness Rocks
Supply List for our Hide and Seak with Painted Rocks Project
• Smooth, flat Rock
• Acrylic paint, I used white, orange, purple and pink
• Paintbrushes, thin flat point brush, thin round-point brush
• Acrylic sealer, spray or paint on
• Paint markers, I used black and white
• Other supplies: table cloth, paper plate, cup of water
Simple Backgrounds for the Rocks
We each chose a background color for our rocks. My son chose purple, my daughter pink, and I chose my favorite color, orange. For a kindness rock, your background can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Here are some great examples of kindness rocks. Note the differences between the backgrounds of each designer.
Holly at Teach Starter has some neat, simple ideas for kindness rocks. These are all kid-friendly.
Teach Starter Teaching Kindness One Rock at a Time
Sweetlana at The Creatives Hour also has an article curating some amazing kindness rocks. The rocks from the included artists tend to have a more detailed background than some others. The Creatives Hour – Rock Painting Ideas
Kindness rocks do not have to be just positive words. Fun pictures are also something that you see often. Gemma at That’s So Gemma has several ideas for kindness rocks using both words and simple pictures. That’s so Gemma – How to Get Involved in The Kindness Rock Project
Choosing & Priming your Hide & Seek Rocks
Rocks are everywhere. But not all rocks are ideal for painting. You can go on a stroll through your neighborhood or park and pick up a few rocks. However, I have found that most of those can be too small or not have much of a flat surface. Purchasing rocks is also an option. You can find them at craft stores, home improvement stores, landscaping companies, or even order them online.
We each chose a different shape and size of rock from my collection. They each had a varying color too. In order to get them all at the same starting place, I cleaned each rock with some dish soap and a sponge and let it dry. Then, I covered each with two coats of Folk Art acrylic paint in Vanilla. Priming the rocks allows you to cover up any imperfections in the surface texture and color. It gives you a blank canvas to work with. We each added two additional layers using our chosen colors of acrylic paint. Make sure to allow the paint to dry completely between coats.
Here is some more great information about priming rocks for painting – How to Prepare Rocks for Painting
Designing the Hide and Seek Rocks
I had both kids, and myself, practice writing our positive phrases on scrap paper. We used pencil, then black paint and a thin brush, and finally a black paint marker.
Be sure to prime your marker before use. You will need to shake the marker at least 20 times and press the tip of the marker on some scrap paper so you can see that the paint is flowing. It is important to get comfortable with the size line that the marker was making and how quickly the paint flows from the marker.
For my daughter’s, Be Brave, we decided to add some arrow shapes on each side of the phrase. She began with two straight lines, added the triangle shape to the top and three flared lines on each side of the bottom of the arrows.
I let each child free-write on their rocks. My son added a little bit of embellishment to his Believe rock.
I wanted to emphasize the YOU in beYOUtiful. Also, I added a simple flower to the side. This was also done with paint markers, a simple light green circle for the center of the flower and white oval shapes for the petals.
Sealing your Kindness Hide and Seek Rocks
I decided to seal these rocks using a spray acrylic sealer made by ModPodge. I made sure to do this step outside. Spray sealer can give off some strong fumes and you don’t want to have that linger inside the house.
I set the rock on some sort of protective surface so I didn’t get the sealer everywhere. Using a paper plate or plastic table cloth works perfectly for this step. I sprayed a light coat of sealer and let it dry. Be sure to follow the package instructions on your sealer.
Sealing is a very important step when you are hiding rocks as they may be out in all sorts of weather before they are found.
Game of Hide and Seek
We had a very fun walk through the garden hiding these rocks. We also found a few that we took home and will hide again the next time we go to the garden.
Top Take-Aways for Hide and Seek Kindness Rocks
1. Kindness rocks help deliver positive messages to others in your community
2. There are no rules for kindness rocks. They can have words, pictures, be simple or very complicated. But they are always fun and encouraging.
3. Rock hiding is a fun way to spend an afternoon. Where can you go in your community to hide rocks for others to find?
Happy hiding!