Easy homemade story stones for story-telling & play:
I love finding new ways to turn every day items, found in nature, into cool things that we can play with, like our domino stones, letter stones and tic-tac-toe stones, so I was positively drooling when I saw some gorgeous story stones over at Pre-School Play the other day.
The Hooligans are off for summer break until September, and I thought about holding off, and making some for us when they return, but I started seeing these stones everywhere, and I couldn’t get them out of my mind.
At the beginning of summer, my boys and I went to the beach, and collected a bucket of smooth rocks. We brought them home, washed them up and stashed them away for a project just like this. Yesterday was gorgeous here, and I had nothing pressing to do, so I set myself up under the trees in the back yard, and got to work.
How I made them:
I started with some scraps of quilting fabric, and cut out some animal shapes, but I didn’t have as much as I’d hoped, so I turned to some magazines, and cut out a few more things. Then, I stumbled across a couple of craft books that I’d picked up at a thrift shop a while back. BINGO!!
The books were intended for a stained glass-painting type of craft, but the paints didn’t come with them. I’d just thought the pictures inside might come in handy one day. They were perfect for this project!!
To make your story stones, put a puddle of modge-podge on a stone, and then place the cut-out in the puddle, and use your fingers to smooth out any air bubbles. With a sponge brush, smooth and dab a little modge-podge over the cut-out, pressing around the edges with your fingers, to get a good seal between the paper and the stone.
The quilt fabric was the easiest to work with because the material was thin and flimsy, and molded to the rock easily. The magazine pictures worked well too, because of their thinness. The craft book cut-outs were quite a bit thicker (similar to glossy card-stock), and required more pressing and smoothing, but they turned out great!
I’m thinking an even easier way to make these, if you didn’t want to go to the trouble of modge-podging, would be to simply apply assorted stickers to your stones, and then give them a coat of varnish for protection.
Story stones provide a super opportunity for imaginative play, and there’s some great sensory stuff going on too: the colours are vibrant, they’re cool to the touch, and for me there’s something soothing about the sound of stones clacking together as you play with them.
Look at them! Aren’t they cute? I’m so pleased with the way they turned out. I can’t wait for the Hooligans to discover them!
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Wow yours look fantastic – I wonder which ones will be the hooligan’s favourites! Ahhh you made balls, I realised the other day I have a little one that is totally obsessed with balls and I forgot to do a ball!!
Thanks Cathy! I think yours are fantastic! Once the Hooligans are back, I plan to do some photo ones like you did. Love the idea of making them personalized stones!
These are so beautiful!!! I adore them!
Thanks so much, Sarah!
Wow these are great, going to be collecting some rocks on our walk tomorrow with the kids just so we can make these. Thanks!
Hi Jenn!! Thanks! You’re going to love making them as much as your kids like playing with them! Good to see you here!
I HEART this idea! My kids aren’t so little anymore…but I’m going to tweak this for another purpose. When I get a moment to do it, I’ll be sure to link back to you if I blog about it…
Wendy @Kidlutions
Please do! I’d love to see what you do with yours!
I love these story stones! There have been so many variations lately but I think this is my favorite! Now I really want to make some of my own. Thanks for sharing on It’s Playtime.
Thank you so much! That’s a huge compliment considering I’ve been absolutely drooling over everyone else’s!
These are so cute! What a great idea…I can’t wait to do this with my daughter
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I love this idea! I have been teaching preschool for 13 years and I am in need of new and creative ideas. Thanks for sharing!
I have felt the same way before, Laura. It’s so nice to have these blogs and facebook pages to visit for inspiration, and refreshing ideas, Thanks for popping in.
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I love this idea!
Very cute. I agree, I love the sound of clicking rocks!
Cute stones!! Now to find flat stones. : ) Thanks for linking to fun frugal friday!!: )
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Help! I made some of these the other day. After they dried over night I stored them in a little bag, but when the kids took them out the ones that had faced each other stuck together and when they pulled them apart the pictures came off! They were completely dry and not tacky at all when I put them in the bag. How do you store yours? Not sure what to do about it!!
Uh-oh! I store mine in a sturdy wooden basket. They’re always exposed to air, so I’ve never had any sticking problems. Can you modpodge new pictures over top of the ones that were ruined? I don’t have a lot of experience with Modpodge, but it sounds like more than 24 hours is necessary to truly dry the stones, and you’re probably best to store them in a container that will allow air to circulate over and around the stones. Even in that kind of container (a box, a bowl or a basket), I wouldn’t stack the stones on top of each other until they’re well and truly dry. I’d probably wait several days. I’d be worried if I did any sooner, (esp. in warm, humid, summery weather) that it could happen again.
Hope you get it straightened out, Jacki and that you have fun with them. j.
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Loving the idea! I pinned this ages ago but was looking for an easier alternative that my daughter now 2 and half could do with me. Did not think of using stickers! what a great suggestion! she can use them then I can do the gloss bit. Any ideas on a suitable gloss ?
Hi, Amy,
You can use the clear acrylic craft sealer, or mod-podge or even a spray varnish. I would let them dry for at least 24 hours before stacking them on top of each other for storing. I had one mom say she placed them in a plastic bag, and they all stuck together, even though they didn’t appear to be tacky any more. I seem to recall mine were tacky for a day or two, and I’ve only ever stored mine in a wicker basket so in the early days, the air was able to circulate around them.
I love your story stones and we made some for my daughter’s birthday last week to facilitate a storytelling session driven by the kids. It was FUN! Thank you for the inspiration. I mentioned yours’ in my blog post:
http://www.mommy-labs.com/creative-kids/art_craft_projects_kids/how-to-make-story-stones-and-facilitate-group-storytelling-plus-birthday-pics/
Thanks so much for the mention, Rashmie. It looks like the girls had fun with them! They’re at a great age to participate in making them, and really using their imagination while using them! Love the idea of experimenting with other materials! Happy Belated Birthday to Pari!
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I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your Story Stone project! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/story-stones-2/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
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