Who’s ready for an outdoor kid craft? Elise had been asking to paint, so I came up with this simple project to keep her busy one afternoon. She talked about it for days afterward, so it must have made an impact!
We found the rectangular stepping stones for $1 each at the hardware store. They are about 8″x16″, but different sizes and shapes are also available. For paint, we just used latex leftovers I had from other projects.
We watered down the latex paint to something like two parts paint, one part water. I found the darker colors you could water down quite a bit and still maintain the intensity of the color. The lighter colors, we didn’t thin quite so much.
FYI: this was just a fun kid art project, and I am not concerned with how the paint will weather. If the stones fade or peel, we will paint them again. If you wanted to do this to an actual patio or sidewalk, you should use special concrete paint. (Valspar makes a good one.) Fair warning.
To keep things simple, we painted one color per stone. Elise did most of the work, and I came up behind her to brush out the drips and cover the edges.
After they dried, we set them in the ground in front of the playhouse. They ended up being a bit uneven, which I didn’t notice until I was taking photos. But they aren’t a tripping hazard, so I think I’m just going to embrace the imperfection of it all.
I sorta wish we could paint a million of these and make a Candyland-like trail through the backyard. Wouldn’t that be fun? #yeahthatsnevergonnahappen
Love the colors you chose – these look great!
Thank you!