Stenciled garden rocks are a quick and easy garden project or gift idea. Personalize with monograms, leaves or your favorite team logo. Step-by-step instructions and photos.

Stenciled Garden Rocks with Monogram

Spring peaked out this weekend for a brief visit and we took advantage of it to do some outdoor projects. I pinned this stenciled garden rocks idea from BHG.com over a year ago. I can’t remember why I didn’t get to it at the time, but I knew I wanted to do it for my mom as a gift for Mother’s Day. She enjoys gardening and has spent a lot of time getting the beds in her yard to look picture perfect. My grandma had the most amazing flower garden, so my mom comes by it honestly. I unfortunately seem to have a black thumb so far, but I’ll keep trying!

This project took me less than an hour once I had my stencils created.

Supplies:

  • Garden rocks with flat surfaces
  • Stencils
  • Painters or masking tape
  • Newspaper or other paper for covering your rocks
  • Spray paint made for outdoor use

Rock selection: You can use any type of rocks that are not very porous. I used some we had in our yard as well as some I purchased from our local garden center. The largest was about 10 inches tall x 6 inches wide. A few were about 7-8″x5-6″ Larger would also work well. I probably wouldn’t go much smaller.

Stenciled rocks - selection

Stencils: I created my stencils with my Silhouette Cameo. If I hadn’t, I probably would have cut my stencils out of contact paper. The original instructions said to use regular paper and spray adhesive. I would be a little concerned about the sticky residue from that. For the monogram, I used the Times New Roman font from my computer. For all other shapes like the leaves, I found them free online by searching Google images.

Stencil Placement: Place and adhere your stencil on your rock. Then to protect your rock from overspray outside of your stencil, use painters tape or masking tape to secure sections of newspaper around the outside of the stencil to cover the rest of your rock.

Stenciled Rocks - monogram stencilStenciled Rocks - monogram stencil covered

Stenciled Rocks - maple leafStenciled Rocks - Elm Leaf

Paint: Using spray paint made for outdoor use, lightly spray over your stencil in even strokes. I did 2-3 coats depending on the paint color/rock color combo. Wait 10-15 minutes between coats. For colors, I used black, copper, and cream.

Stenciled Rocks - painted

Finish:  Once mostly dry, remove your stencils and paper. I like removing while it still has a light tackiness to the paint. I feel like I get a cleaner line.

I made a “B” monogram for my mom and then a large maple leaf and cluster of elm leaves.

Stenciled Garden Rocks with Monogram

Then I decided to use up the rest of the rocks I had selected to make some for our own yard. For us I made an Iowa Hawkeye (Go Hawks!), an “H” monogram, and a cluster of maple leaves. Other ideas I considered were “Est. 2000” for our wedding year or our address.

Stenciled Rocks - Monogram and Hawkeye

How about you – are you making any handmade gifts for Mother’s Day?

19 Comments

  • Diana Rambles
    Posted April 23, 2013 11:16 am 0Likes

    Great idea!!

  • ntcreations
    Posted April 24, 2013 8:09 am 0Likes

    that turned out SO cute! I made have to try that for my moms birthday, she would love it! Thanks so much for taking the time to link up to the Tasteful Tuesday party @Nap-TimeCreations.com. Make sure to follow my blog via bloglovin, GFC or facebook so you don’t miss out on my features posts… it could be YOU :o)
    Emily

  • Ginny
    Posted April 26, 2013 8:40 am 0Likes

    Very effective. I have no idea what silhouette cameo is, but it looks like great stuff.

    • sometimes-homemade
      Posted April 26, 2013 9:16 am 0Likes

      Hi Ginny –

      A Silhouette Cameo is an electronic cutting tool (and so much more) used to cut out shapes on paper or vinyl, create stencils, etc. I just got mine a few months ago and I’m in love!

  • krista
    Posted April 26, 2013 10:43 am 0Likes

    Love these I wanted to make a marker for my back driveway, now I know what I’ll be doing!

  • Krista Low
    Posted April 26, 2013 12:19 pm 0Likes

    These garden rocks are so fun! I really love this idea. My boys would have a great time making these for my garden or as a gift. Thanks for a fabulous post! Krista @ A Handful of Everything

  • Vickie
    Posted April 27, 2013 8:36 am 0Likes

    Wow, this really looks cool! I guess this is another project I’m gonna have to do! 😉 Thanks for the tutorial! Found you on Too Much Time’s blog hop.

    • sometimes-homemade
      Posted April 29, 2013 10:57 am 0Likes

      Thanks Vickie! My to do list of projects seems to be growing as well. Too much inspiration, too little time!

  • Diana Rambles
    Posted April 29, 2013 11:34 am 0Likes

    I love it!

  • susan hollingsworth
    Posted April 30, 2013 9:20 pm 0Likes

    What is contact paper and where can you get it?

    • sometimes-homemade
      Posted April 30, 2013 9:23 pm 0Likes

      Hi Susan –

      Contact paper is the same kind of thing as shelf lining paper. It’s got an adhesive backing. You can buy it at most home improvement stores or in many housewares aisles at stores like Target or Walmart.

  • erin.hoskins@gmail.com
    Posted May 4, 2013 8:01 am 0Likes

    Hi Jenny – thanks for stopping by, I’ll definitely check it out!

  • Miriam
    Posted May 4, 2013 9:59 pm 0Likes

    I have a rock in my flower bed in the front yard that is plain I’m going to try this….thanks for the idea….plus I’m pinning this as well

  • Jennifer
    Posted May 8, 2013 1:26 pm 0Likes

    What a party last week on Friday Flash Blog! Thanks for joining us. I hope you’ve visited some of the other community members and you’re having a splendid week.

    Jennifer

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  • virginnia winstead
    Posted September 19, 2013 6:32 pm 0Likes

    ok great ideas but i dont have any rocks/stones and dont know where to get them–maybe 4-6″ round

    • erin.hoskins@gmail.com
      Posted September 19, 2013 7:07 pm 0Likes

      Hi Virginnia – I got mine at a local garden center. I couldn’t find any at Home Depot or Lowes, but the garden center/nursery had them in all shapes and sizes. Good luck!

  • katie bryant
    Posted October 16, 2014 11:02 am 0Likes

    Would you be willing to share your Hawkeye Silhouette file?

Comments are closed.