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Arts and craft activities are great ways to not only fill the hours of both child and parent, they can result in long lasting keepsakes. Making pet rocks or paperweights is a simple activity to chase away boredom. The paperweights make a great gift for parent or grandparent. It is a simple arts and craft for toddlers thru young teens.

Materials needed are simple - some rocks, Tacky glue, paint and items to decorate the rocks. Some good items are scraps of yarn, scraps of foam, small pom poms, google eyes and other similar materials. Flat rocks work best for younger children. Let your child decorate the rock as they want. If they are stuck for ideas on what to do, give them some suggestions. A rock can be made to resemble a person or a pet. Paint the rock what ever color is desired then decorate with hair, eyes, mouth and so on. We have rocks that have foam hats and bow ties.

Older children can probably handle making a stand up pet rock and you can help them by gluing a small round head onto a slightly larger round body. To make a stand up pet rock first paint the head and body if desired. Since it is often easier to do the bulk of the decorating before gluing the head and body together your child should now use Tacky glue to attach eyes, hair and other features. If desired small arms or feet can be made of foam. When done with most of the decorating, you should consider using a glue gun to glue the head and body together after most of the decorating is done.

The petrocks or paperweights can either be simple or very detailed. Let your child’s imagination be your guide. As we mentioned we have pet rocks with hats and ties, a superhero rock that wears a cape, a gardener that holds a small flower and even a pet rock with a dog on a yarn leash.