For reasons that are too boring to write about, we cannot do a lot of landscaping in our front yard.  I have lived with the work the previous owners did for a few years and this summer I decided to make a few changes.  We have a rock garden that sits by our front porch.  This part of the front yard has been one of my "peeves" the last few years but we have not been able to do a lot about this area.  I have to live with the rock garden for now but the girls and I made it a little better. 

We made some "message" rocks in the rock garden using paint and stamps.  Each rock has a different positive affirmation such as courage, wisdom, love and more.  It looks great in the rock garden and added a personal touch to the area.  It was really inexpensive to do this and I've gotten great feedback from friends and neighbors. 

Here's how we did it:

• We used large, flat landscape stones (we had some in our backyard but you can buy cheaply at the local nursery)
• We purchased black acrylic paint and some craft stamps at Michael's at a cost of $10
• We stamped the rocks with different words and let the paint dry for 24 hours in our garage

I added in a few more plants to give the garden some color but I didn't really have to do that.  The project was fun for us and the girls love seeing their work on display in the front yard, for everyone to see.