Decorate plain rocks or pebbles with vibrant art thanks to POSCA pens

What you need...

• POSCA pen markers: pastel 1M 8-piece pack; 8K blue
  Wooden pebbles: small, large
  HB pencil
  Clear varnish

instructions

1. VERY VERSATILE - POSCA pens are renowned for delivering amazing, true colour to suit any artistic style. Now, a new collection of paint markers in gorgeous pastel shades has been launched, which we’ve put to great use in this easy pebble painting project. Featuring delightful shades such as sunshine yellow, coral, aqua, apricot and lavender as well as light pinks and blues, these contemporary colours will suit so many on-trend projects and give crafters a wealth of creative options. The markers allow you to create beautiful work in a more subtle palette, yet while these hues are super delicate, they still pack the same coverage and punch of your favourite POSCA paint markers.
   
   The pens are effective on a range of surfaces including wood, paper, card, stone, glass, ceramic, leather, fabric and plastic, making them perfect for upcycling and creating all manner of decorations. The multi-purpose, multi-surface ability gives one pack a multitude of uses, making them excellent value. Fresh and vibrant, these new colours provide a bright look for your craft projects. While they are delightful in their own right, they also really ‘pop’ on dark backgrounds. That’s why we’ve given these cute wooden pebbles a vibrant blue base before using pastel markers to embellish with pretty paisley and peacock feather designs.

2. PEACOCK PEBBLE - 1 Prime a pebble with a blue 8K paint marker and leave to dry. Sketch a peacock feather by drawing a central line along the length of the wooden shape. Add a two-layered teardrop at the top, then make swooping lines along the central line.
   
   2 Use pastel pens to go over the pencilled outline and colour in the tear shapes. Once you’ve made the initial marks, leave to dry, then layer some more colours to fill out the feather design.
   
   3 When the initial design is dry, embellish with dots along the lines of the feather, around the teardrops and along the central design.

3. PAISLEY PEBBLE - 1 To create paisley patterns, prime a pebble with blue marker as before, then pencil curved teardrop shapes on the surface. You can create a simple paisley pattern by using two or three tears, a more expressive design with several shapes, or group some together to form a flower shape.
   
   2 To vary the design, create concentric tear shapes inside each other. Draw simple flowers and stems inside the shapes as shown, or make curved lines inside the tear shapes. Go over the pencil lines with pastel markers. When dry, use lighter colours to add detailing over shapes such as dots, and emphasise the lines with highlights.

4. PETAL PEBBLE - Create a floral design by sketching a curved line with leaf shapes along it, as shown. Design your flower by drawing petals in a crescent shape. Work over the design with pastel shades and, as with the previous paisley illustrations, vary the motifs with concentric shapes, curves and flowers as shown. Once the design is dry, embellish with dots and dashes to complete.