Posted by Nicole Carney on Jul 10, 2013 in Camping, Outdoor Activities, Painting, Rock Activities | 2 comments

My boys love collecting rocks, especially when we’re camping. I remember being obsessed with rocks as a kid too. I must have driven my parents a little bananas because wherever we went anywhere I was always on the hunt for a unique rock to take home and add to my expansive collection. There was a time when I could go through each individual rock and tell the story behind it- where it was from, who was with me, what we were doing, how I found it- but my teenage self flippantly dumped all of them in our alley one morning, in order to make room for more important things like CD’s, and magazines :(. It’s funny how our priorities seem to come full circle as we grow; it’s only once we’ve reached late adulthood that we finally realize how wise we were as children, to actually see and appreciate the wander and beauty in all the “little things”.

Rock Creatures

The boys had a stash of rocks on the deck they had previously collected, so we used some of them to make our rock creatures. We started by studying the rocks to see what they resembled. M wanted to make a frog and a turtle, and I came up with the idea of making a crab. I used a hot glue gun to glue our rocks together, but found I had to re-glue most of the parts back on using an epoxy (I used Quik-Cure 5 Minute Epoxy, which I purchased from PM Hobbycraft in Calgary). The Epoxy worked much better! The glueing part of this project should only be done by an adult (you don’t want kids getting burned or glueing any body parts together!!!)

  

Once the glue had set, the boys set to work painting their rock creatures. M used acrylic paints, while B used water-based paint dabbers on his rocks.

  

  

When the paint dried, we glued on googly eyes and added any extra needed details.

The boys really enjoy playing with their new creatures :).

  

Camping Activity

The boys had so much creating their rock creatures, that I packed along materials to make more on our camping trip.

Materials:

• rocks found around the campsite 
• Quik-Cure 5 Minute Epoxy (should only be handled by an adult)
• stir stick, craft stick or plastic knife to mix and apply the epoxy
• paper plates
• paint dabbers for painting (or you could also bring paints with foam brushes)
• craft feathers, pom-poms, pipe cleaners, foam stickers, and different sizes of googly eyes

  

 

The boys made a one-eyed slug, a turtle, a bird, a spider, a butterfly, and bean aliens (basically just a small painted rock with one googly eye).

  

  

And the creativity didn’t stop there! M and his older cousin A just couldn’t resist decorating some paper plates when they were done with the rocks :).

  

  

Click the link for more camping activity ideas.

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