The last week has been a little on the rainy side, so we have had plenty of time for crafts. This one took a little time to prep, but I think it was the paint I was using.

The new house we just moved into has a a giant pile of bricks in the back yard. I decided that these would make some lovely yard art/garden stones for the front yard. First, I decided to prime the bricks with a coat of white paint. I was just using the Tempura paint from the kids craft box, bad idea. It took at least 3 coats (I gave up counting after 3 coats over 2 days and just kept adding a coat every time I walked by the table until it was covered). Perhaps my art teacher friends can give me a clue as to what would be better, but I think I might start scouring the clearance aisle at the Home Depot paint department for a good latex or oil based paint to use for base coats from now on.

When I told the kids that we were going to paint, they got very excited.

I decided to only let them each use 3 colors. Lane wanted light blue, dark blue, and orange. It had a very cool Miami Dolphins vibe for a while. Matilda wanted pink, purple, and green. It started well.

I have to say, that my kids are best friends….for now. I know that I should revel in this moment in time, and it is fun to watch. And they share everything. Even paint. So now, each brick is a blue, green, red, purple, and yellow Jackson Pollack composition. I tried to show Matilda how to do polka dots to break up the all over color montage. She at least tried it.

And then that got boring, so she mushed it all together, resulting in a giant purply-red covered brick that she said looked like a “monster.”

To finish, I put their names on each brick with the year and sealed it with a thinned out coat of Modge Podge. They are probably not going to hold up to years of South Florida weather, but they will look nice in one of the flower beds that is near the house and covered from the everyday rain. I’ll post up photos when they are planted, but here are the finished products.