Memorial Day kicks off the unofficial beginning of summer, and the holiday weekend is often celebrated with a barbecue or picnic (maybe with some delicious berry kabob cupcakes). Need an outdoor craft to keep the kids busy while food is being prepared? Paint some river rocks that can later be used as Memorial Day Tablecloth Weights to keep the wind from ruining your perfect picnic.

Materials

• 4 smooth, flat, clean river rocks about 1-inch - 2-inch in diameter
• 4 ironing board cover fasteners (they're usually sold in packs of 4)
• acrylic paint in various colors
• clear acrylic spray

• strong glue that can bond to non-porous material (such as E6000)
• paint brushes
• scissors
• newspaper (optional, to protect work surface)

Instructions

1.
Cover your work area with newspaper.
2.
Paint rocks with acrylic paint using whatever designs you choose.
3.
Allow paint to dry. Then, spray each rock with clear acrylic spray to seal in the paint.
4.
Use your scissors to cut the elastic on the ironing board cover fasteners to fit to the back of your painted rocks.

5.
Glue each clip to a rock using your strong glue that can bond non-porous materials, such as E6000.

6.
Allow glue to dry (it may take several hours for the tablecloth weights to fully dry and you may have to wait to use them at your next picnic).
7.
To use, clip each Memorial Day Tablecloth Weight to each corner of your picnic tablecloth to keep it from flying away.

Tips

• Limit your palette! If you want your little painters to stick to the Memorial Day theme, only put out red, white, and blue paint.
• To keep this project low budget, you can get most of your supplies at the dollar store. I picked up a bag of river rocks (about 40 rocks per bag), the fasteners, and paint brushes for a grand total of $3.00!
• A note about the glue: hot glue will not work for this project because it can't bond with rocks so it peels off once dry. Stick with an adhesive that's made for working with rocks like E6000.