Transform a few pebbles into this happy smiley frog with a little paint and glue. Make two and you have a pair of bookends! The pebbles will be quite heavy, so once they have been glued together, make sure you leave them to dry completely.
Materials:
One large flat pebble
One thin, wide pebble
Two small wide pebbles
Paint in assorted colours
Small paintbrush
Glue
Varnish (optional)
Method:
- Check that your pebbles are clean and dry. Paint some flowers or dots around the larger pebble for the frog’s body.
- Paint the thin, wide pebble with a base coat of green.Let dry and then paint on a wide smiley mouth in a darker colour.
- To make the eyes, paint a white circle onto the small pebbles and, when dry, add a black dot in the centre of each circle.
- Glue the mouth section to the body and then glue the two eyes in position. You may have to hold the pebbles in place while the glue starts to set. If you like, you can give your frog a coat of varnish to give him a nice shine.
Words of wisdom: You could use the same combination of pebbles as for the frog to make a monkey by painting it in a different way. Start by painting the stones brown, then draw a line for the mouth along the bottom pebble and two eyes on the middle pebble. To finish, draw two semicircles at the base of the small pebbles at the top to make the ears.
Extract from the book, ‘Nature Crafts for Children’ by Clare Youngs.
