Often children, walking along the seashore, collect pebbles and make various buildings out of them. They look at objects and understand that they can be of different shapes, structures, colors, even shades. Sometimes a single element reminds a child of someone, like a heart or a fish, a triangle or a cone.
You can invite your child to make a picture out of stones while on vacation, right on the sand. The first time you can guide him and help him. Find the missing element, present a simple idea. But a picture made in the sand cannot be taken with you and shown to family and friends.
Parents can give their child an idea - collect a set of different parts at home and make an applique of stones on cardboard. It is advisable to first lay it out on the shore, and then carefully collect all the elements in a bag and take it with you. But at home, in order for the picture to last longer, you need to do the preliminary work correctly.
Pros and cons of working with stones
A beautiful, diverse-looking, eco-friendly material for various types of crafts is stone. Works made from it are durable. There are stones of different colors, shapes, sizes.
This allows you to make crafts from stones with your own hands for various purposes. In most cases, you can find material for work right under your feet.
If you use rare, beautiful variations, you can get real masterpieces. The only drawback of the stone is the low flexibility of the material.
To process it, you will have to make a lot of effort, and you can only work with special tools.
However, it is not necessary to change the natural format. The form given by nature often hides a special charm. It is enough to take a closer look at different specimens.
Natural and artificial materials
The pebbles are smooth and do not have pronounced pores. Because of this feature, paints and varnishes adhere well to the surface.
In addition to natural materials, artificial and glass stones are used. What attracts people about “substitutes” is their unusual shape and color. Pebbles for any request can be found in special stores for handicrafts.
Technologies suitable for the job
When figuring out how to make a craft from stones, you can use ready-made ideas. Often the technologies for making products are simple and do not require skill.
It is enough to take a close look at the raw materials and select the right specimens for the job. Often crafts are performed according to the following principles:
- Mosaic. Using pebbles of different types, beautiful pictures are laid out. This can be done on the ground, in cement mortar or on a base by gluing the material. To achieve the result, you can limit yourself to a natural appearance, and also perform coloring.
- Combination. You can create using any technique, using not only natural elements. Natural and artificial specimens are combined well, and various pieces of glass, shards, fragments of bricks, and shells are also used. Additionally, bark, wood, moss, acorns, chestnuts and other natural and man-made materials can be included in the composition.
- Sculptures. To make three-dimensional figures, it is not necessarily difficult to work on stones. It is enough to carefully select the appropriate parts to create a single whole.
- Complex processing. Cutting, faceting and other difficult influences can only be done by specialists. To make jewelry, decorative, ready-to-use pieces are used. You can replace natural stones with epoxy resin. This material makes magical-looking products, and working with it is not difficult.
In any case, stone creations look charming and monolithic. They can easily decorate both indoors and outdoors. Stone products are classics. They are always popular, never go out of fashion, and inspire admiration.
Fairytale house for a fairy. Country and garden decor ideas. DIY country crafts
A fairytale house for a fairy is a miniature house made of pebbles. Happy owners of a garden and cottage know how wonderful it is to have a fabulous corner for relaxation in the fresh air, where you can enjoy the sun, wind, the color of plants and flowers, which in turn is good for your health: both mental and physical. And therefore, every time they rush to enjoy peace and solitude in their flower gardens.
Are you also attracted to cozy stone houses? They seem very attractive and almost magical. Like real houses from a fairy tale. It is very interesting to take up such a hobby as miniature gardening and someday build your own miniature stone house somewhere in the back of the garden.
Well, for now we’ll have to settle for less: let’s build a miniature fairytale house for a fairy. Let the children rejoice! Be sure to involve them in the creative process - it's fun and educational.
For children and together with children, we will try to improve our dacha vacation spot and propose to create a fairytale house for a fairy - a beautiful miniature house made of pebbles.
Miniature stone house
How to make a miniature house from pebbles |
My Beautiful Home Children love to collect river and sea pebbles, so you will probably have the right amount, but if not, then you will always have time to collect them on trips to the river or on the sea beach. Also, pebbles and stones are sold in decorative stores.
We need a plastic bottle (5-6 liter), glue, scissors or a knife, varnish and pebbles.
First, check the quality of the glue: does the glue hold the pebbles well enough on the plastic surface: glue a couple of stones to a piece of plastic, wait until it dries completely (according to the instructions), if everything turned out fine, then feel free to proceed to the main work.
We cut the plastic bottle into 2 unequal halves. The upper smaller part will be the roof of the fairytale house. From the larger lower part we cut out the entrance (or exit). Cut out windows if desired.
We start gluing the pebbles: from the roof or the base - at your discretion. Glue in stages, step by step, allowing the glue to grab firmly enough.
After gluing, allow time to dry and settle, then additionally secure with varnish. In addition to additional bonding, the varnish will provide resistance to moisture (the house will stand in an open space where there is rain and breeze), and the pebbles will sparkle and shimmer in the sun.
For decoration, add artificial moss, flowers (plastic, plastic), you can decorate with buttons. Everything is up to your taste and opinion!
Give your child room for imagination: let him do the rest of the decoration himself. For example, he will supply toy accessories: doll furniture, buckets, shovels... whatever your heart desires!
Fairy house | My Beautiful Home
The fairytale house for the fairy and gnomes is ready and we are moving it to a cozy place in our garden to make our dacha even better: quiet, calm, harmonious and magical!
Garden Crafts | My Beautiful Home
Miniature fairy houses for garden decoration | My Beautiful Home
Watch also the video about fairytale miniature houses
How to make a birdhouse
Difference in the scale of creativity
The size and scope of a stone craft for the garden and a product for a children's exhibition can differ significantly. In this case, labor costs will also be different.
- A small craft can be completed in an hour,
- And a large product sometimes takes more than 1 day to create.
Children cannot work with boulders or create garden paths or gabions. Even a child can work with small pebbles, sand, and shells under the guidance of an adult.
Souvenirs for children of all ages
A very wide variety of crafts can be made from natural stone. Today, quite often you can find crafts for the subject The world around us, made of stone. These are original panels with a chosen plot, and paintings laid out with pebbles.
In kindergarten, creative activities are carried out with paints and plasticine, creating figures of animals and insects.
Simple children's figures and applications
The simplest crafts from sea stones or any other analogues are not difficult to make. The most important thing: come up with an idea. To implement it, you will need to take a good look at the existing material.
Surely, there will be pebbles of all kinds of formats. Select options that can serve as details.
It can be:
- Pens,
- legs,
- Ears
- And other parts of the reproduced object.
Next, the elements are secured in the chosen method. Typically, glue is used for this purpose, designed for reliable fixation of solid objects.
painting
Hand-made designs look great on large pebbles.
Even a non-artist can turn a pebble into a canvas by drawing simple pictures on it like leaves or stars. Acrylic paints are best suited for this purpose. The quick-drying material does not smudge when fixed with varnish.
There are many image options. Here are the most popular ones:
- patterns (stripes, curls, specks);
- insects (butterflies, ladybugs, bugs);
- rainbow;
- planets;
- trees and plants;
- animals;
- fairy-tale creatures.
Painting is carried out on bare stone or a surface previously coated with white acrylic. White designs (eg runes) on identical gray pebbles also look impressive.
Elementary children's crafts
It’s easy to create beautiful decor from stones without putting in a lot of effort. It is enough to choose a base that is convenient for creativity.
- It should be a smooth pebble of sufficient size.
- Paints are used for decoration. Of course, this is not ordinary watercolor or gouache.
- An acrylic version or building enamel will do.
- The drawing is done independently or using a stencil.
- You can paint a picture on an object or turn it into an animal, a person, or a flower.
Basic Rules
- Select smooth stones with a dense texture, such as pebbles, for painting.
- Wash and dry the stones well.
- Before painting the stone, you need to apply a layer of primer made of PVA glue and water in a 1:1 ratio. This process will ensure the paint is applied evenly.
- For painting, use acrylic paints, but if you don’t have them, replace them with gouache.
- Use brushes of different sizes.
- Cover the painted stone with acrylic craft varnish; if you don't have it, use clear nail polish. This action will extend the life of the craft, protecting it from weather conditions, and also give it a beautiful shine.
Pictures made of stones
Using stones, you can create entire pictures. You don't need any special skill to do this.
- The foundation is prepared for work. Usually this is a piece of plywood, a board or very thick cardboard.
- The contours of the drawing are applied to the base.
- Using the present image, they select pebbles that will make up the surface of the picture.
- The material can be sorted as much as possible by parameters, color, and other characteristics.
- After this, all the parts are glued one by one to the selected places.
- This way you can lay out not only the main object, but also create details and a frame.
Stone frog
Using this natural material you can make different animals. Surely your child will be delighted with such a frog.
You will need:
- Super glue;
- Sea pebbles of different sizes;
- Acrylic paint.
Manufacturing:
- The large stone will be the body of the frog;
- Elongated small pebbles are the future legs of an amphibian;
- For the eyes you will have to look for the very smallest pebbles;
- Glue all the parts together with superglue;
- Draw the finished layout.
Decorative figures
Good crafts made from shells and stones can be used as decoration.
- By gluing the parts to each other, a complete object is assembled.
- These can be animals, natural motifs, people.
- For maximum realism, the result can be painted in the desired colors.
- Such crafts will act as both a decoration and an exhibit for a children's exhibition.
The stones only seem cold and faceless. In fact, this is an excellent material for creativity. Working with them will not cause problems if you set feasible tasks.
Pebble Dominoes
Pebbles probably served as a material for making dominoes among our ancestors. Let's repeat their craft! You just need to draw the dots.
Draw a line across with white paint to divide the stone into two areas. Now draw dots in each zone: from 1 to 6 dots per side. Alternate all possible combinations of numbers: 1/5 - 2/4 - 6/3 3/2, etc.
And if you first paint the entire stone with paint of a contrasting color, it will turn out absolutely wonderful.
It is better to use woven bags to store stone dominoes.
