This post is sponsored by The Brand Connection/Pentel, all ideas and opinions are my own.
Quick! Name a color you associate with the 1990’s!? Did you say neon? I thought so! Neon ruled the day when I was a kid in the 90’s! I’m flashing back to the 90’s, sharing a fun comic pop art project using those exciting neon pen colors we all loved to doodle with in high school! Pentel Pop pens have all the pastel, neon, and sparkly colors we fondly remember and are perfect for creating this comic story stones craft for kids!
Comic Story Stones Craft with a Pop Art feel!
Comics were huge in the nineties. My kids love comics today although I don’t see them around that much. These comic story stones were fun to make and play with, and gave my boys a taste of my childhood! Here’s what you need to teach your kids how to make these comic story stones that POP! with color!
Materials:
- Pentel Pop pens in milky, solar, and sparkle!
- Dark river rocks, assorted sizes (flatter is better)
- Decoupage sealer (you know the one!), glossy
- Small sponge brush applicator
- Printouts of cartoon / comic style elements – Find free online or use picmonkey clipart. Bubble letters, speech bubbles, or bursts of smoke or water work well. (Or, kids can draw their own!).
- Scissors
Directions:
STEP 1: Match stones to printouts. Have children pick a comic element and find a stone that completely covers it (reduce the size of your printout if your stones don’t fit).
STEP 2: Color each comic element selected with a variety of Pentel Pop pens!
- The Milky colors give a burst of pastel to your design. My son loved the Milky pens because he said they looked like liquid chalk. The colors do indeed have that soft, chalk-like look!
- The Solar colors create a vibrant, neon color that is pretty out of this world! The smooth gel inks in Pentel Pop pens makes it easy to color in the designs.
- Save the Sparkle pens with their shimmery, iridescent pops of color for Step 5!
STEP 3: Cut out the comic designs. Lay a rock on top of your comic design and trace around with pencil. Cut out a little inside your tracing, so the cutout fits on the top, flatter surface of the rock without wrapping over.
STEP 4: Decoupage your design onto the rock. Apply decoupage sealer to the surface of the rock with the sponge brush, then flatten your paper design gently onto the rock. Use another piece of paper to press down and be sure there are no bubbles. Dry 15 minutes. Then, apply a coat of sealer over the entire design, going over the edges slightly to adhere the paper firmly to the rock. Dry 15 minutes.
STEP 5: Make it POP! Now it’s time for the Pentel Pop Sparkle pens! Their bold, glittery colors enhance any design. We outlined the edges of speech bubbles, words, motion curves, or filled in words. The Sparkle pen ink glides on smoothly over the decoupage surface and dries quickly. If you have any corrections to make, use the Milky and Solar pens to write on top of the glossy surface as well for touchups.
Pentel’s gel inks dry super fast. Meaning my little left-handed boy didn’t smudge any of his designs while coloring! Plus he could start playing with his comic story stones quickly.
Comic Story Stone Playtime!
Once the story stones are dry, kids can use them to tell a story by lining up the stones in the order of their choice. Use small figurines as the characters if you wish, or just tell the story off the stone with imaginary characters. New stories can be created simply by rearranging the stones.
Moms, making these comic story stones is so easy. Show your kids the steps to create them independently, or for younger kids, have them color the designs and you can do the decoupage part. This is an easy craft to set out for an after-school activity or a rainy weekend. How about using the stones as a lighthearted way to have your child tell about their school day!?
Variations for Comic Story Stones play:
Pick up / Put down story – Pick up one stone to start the story. Replace and select a new stone to continue the story. Replaced stones can be used again and in no particular order.
Put stones in a bag and select at random. Children add to their story using the prompt on the stone.
“Use all the stones” story – challenge kids to make up a story that uses all the stones.
Partner story – One child picks up a stone and starts a story. The second child picks up a stone and continues the story. Rotate back and forth.
Enjoy these comic story stones over and over with your family. Add new elements as needed because you’ll already have all the materials at hand!
More about Pentel POP pens
I told you it was a flashback, right? Pentel Pop Milky pen colors were actually the original pens from “back in the day.” (I get to say that now!). The smooth gel ink colors shift depending on whether you write on white or black paper. We could see this effect when we’d trace over the black design.
Pentel Pop Solar pens have eye-popping colors and write with a medium line, making them a great choice for designs with fine detail. The Sparkle inks had that magical quality all kids crave in an ink color. Iridescent like a peacock feather, and really cool to see the ink change on white versus black. Best of all, they wrote so well over the glossy decoupage surface. The sparkle pens will write on photos, cards, and other paper surfaces nicely, to give anything that POP of color kids love!
We also used some Pentel EnerGel pens in black and green to touch up spots where we’d colored outside the lines. The EnerGel pens covered our little bloopers nicely with their deep colors. EnerGel pens are made with 84% recycled plastic and can be refilled with ANY color EnerGel Refill!
Get more inspiration for exciting and brilliant Pentel Pop crafts and ideas on the Pop by Pentel website! And follow Pentel of America on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to see their latest ideas!
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