How to Personalize a Painted Rock Car

You can personalize a painted car rock with:

• Paint color
• Details of headlights, rear lights, rims, etc.
• License plate
• Passengers

Here's how I personalized a painted rock car for a Father's Day gift. (I already had a car-shaped rock on hand.)

First I gathered photos of the actual car model I wanted to paint on the rock which helped me choose the correct paint color and other identifying details.

I did not try to paint the car front exactly. Instead I chose a few simple details from my photo.

I referred to my photos to paint the rims.

I further personalized the auto with the rear lights and license plate. You can get very personal with the license plate by using names, vanity plate phrase, etc.

I took the personalization even further by adding a family of passengers on one side of the car. I just Mod Podged photo printouts onto the painted rock. (The tricky part was making sure the photos were the right size for the car.)

Ideas

• Paint a school bus full of classmates
• Paint a truck and add a photo for the driver
• Paint a train full of passengers

These personalized, painted rock cars are a great gift idea not only for Father's Day but for any boy (or girl) who loves vehicles. It's also a unique, one-of-a-kind permanent "frame" for favorite photos.

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My first painted rock car was a lot more fun than I expected because of the personalized details.

© Cindy Thomas Painted Rocks

Sweet, Simple Gifts - No-Fat Rock Candies

Painted rock candies are a sweet gift to have on hand around the holidays and very easy to paint.

Quick How-To Lesson for Painting Chocolate Candy Rocks

• Small, round stones make the best rock candies.
• Paint one (or both) sides of each stone with a milk, dark, or white chocolate acrylic paint color. For the majority of these stones I used burnt umber acrylic paint. The light one is painted with buttermilk acrylic and for the shiny stone on the lower right I used brown fabric paint. 
• If you have stones that are naturally chocolate-colored, you don't need to paint them. FYI: The stone on the upper right is unpainted.

Paint the stones with chocolate-colored acrylics

• You can start decorating the stones now or you can add a little shading around the sides of each stone by mixing the brown paint with a little black (or brown with the buttermilk color).
• An internet search for chocolate candy images will give you ideas for how to decorate your candies
• I made this tool for applying the little dots on the stones

DIY Dotting Tool

• Now use your imagination - dots, swirls, lines, squiggles, a combination of designs - anything goes.
• 3-D Fabric paint is what gives the designs dimension and realism. I used white, butterscotch and brown fabric paint
• You may want to practice using the 3-D fabric paint before applying it to the stones.

Add designs to the chocolate-colored stones

The painted rock candies will look even more realistic if you display them in a festive holiday dish...

...or a bowl.

 

A few more gift-giving ideas: 

• Adorn wrapped packages with a candy or two
• Gift a few individual candies
• Place a few rock candies in a Christmas stocking
• Attach a ribbon to make a Christmas ornament
• Create a unique and/or personalized gift by packaging the candies in a dish, bowl, mug, etc.
• Painted rock candies make great gifts for Valentine's Day too.

Please, please, please remember to keep these candies away from young children. They can be very tempting and dangerous if ANYONE attempts to eat them.



Note: This idea was adapted from and inspired by Suzi Chua.


© Cindy Thomas Painted Rocks