DIY Strawberry Rocks

I am going to give you reasons to paint rocks!

You will need:
- some smooth rocks / pebbles (scrubbed clean and dried)
- paintbrushes
- acrylic paints
- spray varnish as a final coat for protecting a paint

Reasons:
- for fun  - you will need 20mins + drying time, to spend time you can paint them with your kids - age 2+
- nice design for outdoor life
- use them as a chalkboard
- magnet rocks and lots of other

I am going to paint my rocks as strawberries. I have not decided where should I put them, probably just as decorations in the garden. 

Here are the steps.

Step 1: Collect some strawberry shaped stones. Wash well with soap and water and let dry overnight.

I use acrylics. I took white, red, black, dark, medium and light green colors.

To achieve a bright red color, undercoat stone with white acrylics. Paint half of your stone and let it dry. Turn over and paint the other half. Let it dry.

Step 2: Basecoat with any red color of your choice letting the first side dry before continuing to the other side. You will probably need two coats of red.

Step 3: Look at your "berry" and decide which end would be best suited for the hull. 

With medium green base in the hull, making 6 or 7 painted leaves that come about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way down the strawberry.

Try to make your hull bigger than smaller because you will not see it from a side view. 

Step 4: Outline each hull leaf with dark green. Put in a central vein on each and add a circle at the top center.

With light green add highlights here and there. Don't wash out your brush between greens. Mixing them is more interesting.

Step 5: With black using a liner brush, randomly add the little pockets where the seeds grow. 

Again using a liner brush, place a dot of white in each little pocket to represent the seed.

Step 6: The final step is to give your berry two or three coats of varnish. The varnish can be in a spray form or with a wipe-on product called final coat. It protects the paint from chipping, gives depth to the color and it keeps the paint from sticking and lifting when you pile the berries in a basket.

Step 7: Display your berries in a grass in the garden or in the basket on the table.

You can use this technique to paint rocks as you want!