How cute letting your kids use their little fingers to paint lady bug spots. What grandparent wouldn’t be proud to stick these painted rocks in the garden? : )

Gather your supplies: Flat river stones either collected from your journeys or from the local home improvement store. (Typically found in bags outside in the garden center near the bricks). Delta Creative exterior varnish and a few colors (including black and white) of outdoor/patio paint found at a hobby store or on Amazon. You’ll need a thin brush for any details or outlines and a wide flat brush for the final coat of varnish. Protected work surface (old towels work great.) A hair drier if you want to speed things along.

Start by wiping your stones clean. For ladybugs, start with a few layers of color, drying in between coats. Paint the head portion black along with the spots. Dry and add the whites of eyes. Now the pupils.

Let dry and use your flat brush to add a layer or two of varnish per the directions. Be sure to over lap your design just a bit. Let it dry, perhaps overnight, and your adorable project is complete. Ta-da!

Now think of the other things you could paint! Garden fairies, flowers, bugs, trucks, boats, herb labels, names, sayings… possibilities are endless. Maybe Grandma would like little hand prints? Perhaps I may want a little foot path with baby footprints? If we make these I’ll be sure to post them here!

We made “gems” to dig up in the sandbox. check it out! My little one can play with these for hours. : )

Let’s see what you did! Post a pic of your painted rocks on Instagram and tag @lubba.food.garden. Can’t wait to see what your crew comes up with!