24.11.15

Decoupaged Stones Tutorial

Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
          Hi friends  sharing a super simple tutorial ! As crafty girls, you may have heard of the art of rock painting ; well I have been fascinated with it and even tried my hands on it but never been able to paint anything remotely resembling the beautiful stones featured in books or websites!
          So if you are like me and don't have the patience to paint ,decoupaging is a super simple and gratifying way to "Stone Craft"!
        This is a super easy craft and it feels so gratifying to transform a mundane object into a thing of beauty! You can use these decoupaged stones as paper weights or simply as "objets d'art" in your home! They are so cute you can even gift them!
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
             And don't be scared by the word decoupage...it just means cutting paper into bits and sticking it onto something...No sweat!!
But if you want to go a bit in-depth about decoupage and modpodge check out this link :Mod Podge Tips and Secrets
Materials Required for Stone decoupage
  • Round Smooth surface stones or rocks
  • White Acrylic Paint and Paint Brushes
  • Tissue paper/paper napkins or thin pattern paper
  • Scissors
  • Decoupage glue- I prefer Mod Podge Matte to stick and Mod Podge Satin for the top coat
  • Thin Towel 
  • Felt or foam - to add to the under-surface of your stone
  • Optional - Distress Inks /Other ink pads and Acrylic paint
Where to collect nice stones suitable for decoupage?
Stones are everywhere....you just need to keep your eyes open. Get ones which are large and can just fit into your palm.Too tiny ones are better suited for painting rather than decoupage and large ones dont look cute enough. A stone the size of an average paper weight would be ideal and then after you have decoupaged it you can actually use it as a paper weight! 
Good places to look for stones:
  • Near house/flat construction sites
  • Near lakes and rivers
  • In your garden!
  • In the park
       There is a lot of construction work going on in my neighborhood and truckloads of sand are unloaded frequently for constructing houses. I go for walks with my dogs a couple of times a day and relish collecting beautiful stones [ He he I do the stone picking early in the morning so that not many people are around to see me...dont want them thinking I am crazy!]
Prepare your stones
  • Easiest way is to fill a bucket with soapy water and leave your stones for a couple of hours/ overnight.....that way you don't have to spend as much time scrubbing them clean. 
  • I do add a little bit of antiseptic Dettol too into the bucket of water just to decrease the germ load before I handle the stones!
  • Choose stones which don't have cracks....in case all your stones have cracks you can "cheat" and smoothen it out with air drying clay/mseal.
  • Choose stones which have one flat surface- this just makes working on the stone easier ---decreases frustration of running after rolling stones!
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
  • Paint the stones with white acrylic paint...yeah you can skip the gesso...it doesn't really mater!
  • Use thin paint brushes to really get into all the little dips on the stone! 
  • After drying turn it over and attack the under-surface !
  • Decoupage only after the paint has dried thoroughly
 Choose Decoupage Paper
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
  •  You can use thin pattern paper, thin wrapping paper or tissue paper. Avoid thick pattern paper as it will be difficult to wrap on to the curved surfaces of your stone
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
  • You can cut the design closely or just leave a margin. 
  • For the stones decoupaged with tissue paper use only the top layer and discard the other layers.Tissue papers may have 2 or 3 layers and you have to peel off all layers and use only the printed layer for decoupaging.
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
  • You can apply a thin layer of mod podge/ other decoupage glue using a regular paint brush or a foam brush on the dry stone.
Dont apply a lot of glue on the stone or you will be left with a sticky mess and frustrated hair pulling!
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
Gently place your cut design on the stone and mop with a towel gently!
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
Once dry you can bring out the artist in you and try a few tricks to help merge the design to the rest of the stone! In the design above I inked the white acrylic painted parts of the stone with Distress Ink to decrease the contrast with my birds.
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
You can also add a few dots of acrylic paint randomly to up the cuteness quotient!
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
         If you are planning to use your decoupaged stones as paper weights or want to avoid scratching your tables with your stones, hot glue a piece of felt on the under-surface of your stones.
Decoupaged Stone Tutorial
The red flower shown above was cut from a DCWV pattern paper..I fussy cut the flower and leaf close and inked the surrounding stone with distress ink and added white acrylic paint dots!
Decoupaged Stones Tutorial
In this design I experimented with both white and black paint dots! I have used the same napkin on this project too : Foam Rose tutorial
Decoupaged Stones Tutorial
And that is the under - surface of my stone ...the felt levels off the irregularities and not only does it protect your table/other surface from the rough surface of the stone but prevents the stone from sliding or wobbling.
Decoupaged Stones Tutorial
 The one shown above is quite large and the size of my palm! I
Decoupaged Stones Tutorial
I hope this simple tutorial will be of use to you or inspire you in some way!
Linking to 

42 comments:

  1. These are beautiful Sonia, such a fabulous idea.
    Pauline
    x

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  2. They all look super. Ive stamped on and painted on stones but never tried this. Hugs Mrs A.

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  3. these are beautiful - what a really lovely idea! Thankyou xx

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  4. Oh gosh, I love these,I've got to try them Debbs xxx

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  5. Your stones are just gorgeous Sonia..never thought to do this and what a great project for the children too..I loved the little blue birds..

    Luv CHRISSYxx

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  6. They look so beautiful, Sonia!! What a fabulous tutorial!! When I was young, my sister and I used to paint rocks and take them around the neighborhood to sell. They looked nothing like this!! Yours are gorgeous!! Thanks for the inspiration!! Have a great day :)

    Lisa
    A Mermaid's Crafts

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  7. How incredibly beautiful are these :D Thank you for the tutorial :D

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  8. Lovely art piece Sonia !!!

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  9. What a great technique and lovely way to use these stones for home decor!! Thanks for sharing this..I am going to try it out and share with you.. :)
    Suchi xx

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  10. These are gorgeous Sonia. Another thing on my list to try..Loz

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  11. This is so lovely ! Thank you for the tutorial !
    Greetz
    Margo

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  12. What beautiful and unique creation Sonia, each one so very pretty in it's own way.

    B x

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  13. It is so beautiful ma'm :)

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  14. They are so beautiful ma'm.

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  15. These are beautiful Sonia !!

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  16. They are gorgeous :) they will make cute paper weights :) :)

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  17. Wow.. Great idea Dr :) super cute works of art :)

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  18. What a genius idea Sonia! Love the decoupage idea, they look like they were hand painted! Beautiful choices of images too! hugs :)

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  19. Lovely.. nice idea :-)

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  20. Wow..These paper wights look Beautiful !

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  21. Wowzer Doc, it's almost midnight here and I want to go outside to find some rocks. This is gorgeous love it...what fabulous 'pet' rocks I could make.
    I have nice black ones around part of the pool area, would they be ok to use...
    hugs, xx
     { aNNie}

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  22. Wow wow wow! These are absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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  23. I remember painting rocks as a kid and using them around the but decoupage seems smarter

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  24. You are a genius. These are gorgeous and really look painted. hugs, Teresa

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  25. WOW these are so beautiful! TFS

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  26. These look amazing Sonia!! Such a great idea! :) Hugs & Smiles - *Vicki*
    My Blog: Stamp Smiles

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  27. Love so much painted stones and this is really a great idea to make them easy! Beautiful images, so sweet and spring! Thanks for the idea!

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  28. Really stunning. Thank you so much for sharing your lovely creation with us at Sparkles Monthly Challenges.
    Hugs
    Cathy DT Member
    xxxxx

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  29. Oh Sonia - what a fabulous idea and thank you so much for all the detial on how to try this wonderful technique out. Just beautiful!

    Hugs

    Di xx

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  30. These are so pretty Sonia, what a lovely idea!
    Hugs Jacee
    Simply Paper Card Design

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  31. These are lovely!! You always have some wonderful and genius ideas!! Thanks for sharing with us at the Unstampabelles.
    -Berina
    Moxie Craftie
    Unstampabelles DT

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  32. Hey Sonia this is so cool!! Love the idea, they turned out sooo pretty!

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  33. These are beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  34. I must say that you always come up with beautiful ideas...n very innovative... Love these.
    Daksha

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  35. As usual, another very clever tutorial in making from little. The outcome is beautiful, as always! Thanks for sharing this with us at Unstampabelles!

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  36. Terrific tutorial. Lovely stones to start with but what a great improvement to them. Great paperweights and wonderful gifts too.

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  37. Oh wow! these are so very creative !

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  38. They look very pretty. Great tutorial too!
    I would love to make some Christmas ones!
    Thank you for joining us at Sparkles Monthly Challenges. Good luck!
    Nick

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  39. Dear Dr. Sonia,

    Thank you for sharing your methods here. I am new to decoupaging and it seemed interesting to me, so I chose a few rocks from a construction site of maybe small to medium sized rocks. Not the little tiny rocks. Anyhow I followed a tutorial which was I printed my mirrored image from laser printer. I cleaned the rock. Then I put down just white acrylic paint and instantly placed my image face down and smoothed out all air bubbles. Let it dry overnight. Then spray water over image and began to peel away the paper. Tried 3 times now everyime the paper will not simply peel away, it stays so you have to scratch it to removr it but then by by image. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP WITH WHAT IM DOING WRONG?? :(

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    Replies
    1. Kelly I have personally not tried image transfer so cant really offer you good remeidies

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