Why I paint rocks and pebbles

If you haven't heard of kindness rocks check out this site, I'm not the only person who enjoys painting rocks, it's a worldwide phenomenum. 

Herb and veggie markers

Here's a couple of gift ideas that started out as a little something for my parents for Christmas. Since then their friends have been ordering these faster than I can collect the pebbles to paint.

I've just been making up more sets on request and with a week or two's notice can probably get them to you all year round - just £6 a set.

 

Earth Day and related

With Earth Day on the calendar this week, I thought I'd share a quick update on my fundraising efforts for Friends of the Earth. I'm almost at my target of £150. Still have plenty of handmade cards up for grabs if anyone is interested.

The plantable eggs from Easter are not showing a great deal of growth but there are sprouts and there is plenty growing out in the garden. Although I think a great deal is weeds - but there are flowers and bees so that counts doesn't it?

There are still a few £1 'save the bees' bees still available - and I can of course always make more (can post if needed - normal charges apply).

Help save the bees

Since the beginning of March monies from my handmade card sales are being collected for donation to Friends of the Earth in support of their Craft for your planet fundraising efforts. Although I haven't really had time to promote what I'm up to so far I've raised £86 against my target of £150.

Continuing efforts this month, I'm focussing on increasing awareness of specific issues and helping to save the bees is high on the list. 

For Easter I've created an alternative Easter egg activity/gift for the kids in my community which will hopefully get them involved in growing some flowers to help save the bees.

 

Take a look at the Friends of the Earth site, sign a petition or two or even make a donation. 

A donation of £5 towards the Bee Saver Kit will provide you with wildflower seeds to grow, a garden planner and plenty of other info to help with saving bees. If you have young children then there is a Planet Protector Pack containing an activity handbook and a pack of seeds, which will keep them occupied as well as teach them about how they can help protect the planet.

Every little helps. Even my painted rocks are helping spread the message... I'm hiding these out and about, but if you want one for yourself they are just £1 (can post out if needed - normal charges apply)  and monies will go in the pot for my Craft for your planet target.

In case you need a little note card I had a few eggs left over so have created these - just £1 each and the money all goes to Friends of the Earth. Normal postage costs apply. Just email me at jadedcrafter@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Kindness Rock Garden #RandomActsofKindness

 

'The gardeners' haven't been for some time as we are still in lockdown, so as it's Random Acts of Kindness Week I thought a little Rock Garden might spread some love locally... 

If like me you are missing travelling right now, and want some travel themed creative ideas, check out my travel blog. This month I'm getting creative with recipes from my travels. There's plenty of older posts that might work to keep the kids occupied this half term too... 

Elf-abet trail painted pebbles

There's another (last time it was dinosaurs) trail up on our local common, so I just had to create some painted pebbles to add to the fun and what a great theme at this time of year...

This is what I came up with - perhaps there will be a few kids searching for the full set when I put them out tomorrow:

Do post a pic if you find one - please...

Adopt a pebble pet for charity

The pebble pets have taken over - but it's all in the aid of charity and specifically mind.org.uk. I had hoped to host a crafternoon but instead thought best to keep things socially distanced for now.

Each pet comes with a little card:

Get in touch for current pets available, although I have also been creating specific requests as well.

Please note that most pets can be posted within the UK - normal standard postage applies.

Creating for charity, supporting mental health

This lockdown life means I'm bursting with creative ideas and have not many places to put them! When I saw that Mind was offering a Crafternoon kit to help with organising a virtual craft event and raise some much needed money for the charity, I wanted to do something. 

So many people suffer, or don't even realise they are suffering with their mental health. 

Crafting and being creative has always helped me balance my mind back when life is difficult and of course I just love it and everything that I can do that involves being creative... even if I'm not very good at something!

It doesn't matter if your are not creative, the enjoyment of just doing something creative always helps with improving your mood. When I used to hold card making classes, people came along and gave it a try and they loved it too. 

I haven't really determined if I can find the time do a virtual Crafternoon event, particularly as this involves sitting in front of a pc (which I do far too much of at work!) but I've certainly been creating enough items that will hopefully, help raise a bit of money for Mind.

Christmas cards are the obvious choice at this time of year. Any I make/sell, will be for charity... and the other bits and bobs will include something from my new hobby - painted rocks/pebbles! 

Everyone has been asking me about these and a few people have suggested I sell them as they would be willing to pay (!), but I've just been painting and hiding them for people to find until now.

More to follow another day - but here's a sneak preview...

I think I will just set a minimum donation amount. They would make great stocking fillers so maybe a couple of quid and if I have time, I'll paint requests as well?

Painting rocks replaces travelling... for now

It's a sad case of not being able to travel this year and my travel blog really isn't motivating me to post, so clearly I've been trying to replace the blogging hole with a bit of creative stuff at home instead. The painted rock craze really is taking over the card making as I've not really seen anyone to sell my cards to... 

Here's a bunch of hiders that I put out in Wimbledon Common earlier today:

 

Halloween painted pebble hunt

I was starting to think that trick or treating was gonna be cancelled this year for sure and I'd already stocked up on sweets weeks ago... what could I do instead? Bring on the local community events... or basically a bunch of people who live in the same close as me who don't want the kids to miss out. With a few ideas of how to keep the sweets socially distanced, and a potential of a treasure hunt (with pictures in windows) and a pumpkin carving comp there had to be something creative I could contribute - not being a kid and able to take part?!.

So I bashed out a bunch of painted Halloween rocks ready to hide... to be honest these didn't take as long as they usually do as I just picked a few designs and kept them simple, but was quite pleased with being able to use orange, despite this not being the easiest colour to work with sometimes, it can be quite effective with black:

Of course there was also a pumpkin that needed cutting ...

This could be dangerous

Maybe these would be good for something other than hiding out on the common... although probably bit of a dangerous prank. Not that there is anyone to show them to other than the blogger-sphere! These are my new [and only] friends I can spend time with it seems, for now!

First rocks/pebbles

Here are my first few designs, all CASE'd from those I've seen online...

 

 

The fun part is heading out for a walk and hiding them. Gets me out of the house for exercise and it can become a ickle bit addictive, going back and checking to see if anyone has found them ;)! 

OH thinks it's another fad... little does he know, and I think he is secretly a fan - found one of these went missing and he is totally enjoying being out and about and helping to hide them.

Painting rocks craze

What does a crafter do when she has made enough cards... can't go out anywhere other than a park and is running out of things to sketch?

Honestly, I really don't need another creative hobby do I!

 

I had bought some spray varnish to start painting rocks back in 2019, before I went to New Zealand - basically because I heard they were really into that sort of thing over there. This is the closest I could get to my travel related plans for now.

The boxes of rocks or pebbles above, were picked up in Oxshott in a park (sand pit apparently) and this is where the craze begins.

Check back to see how I get on - it's not actually that easy to paint on a rock/pebble it seems...