DIY Faux Rose Quartz Sphere
Make your own faux rose quartz sphere with this cool tutorial!
My kids have a huge fascination with Rocks and Gems.
A few years ago my oldest son picked up a small rock and gem kit at a book fair, and he spent hours examining each different type of rock and looking through the book at the different examples.
Whenever we are out walking or hiking, they often find different examples of rocks or stones to examine and to bring home with them.
And the only time they’ve ever really begged me for something when we were at a home decor shop was when they spotted the large geode and agate bookends on a recent tour through HomeSense.
We ended up with one beautiful ethereal dark blue agate piece.
So when my most recent challenge with the Make it Fun® team was to craft up a project related to education and Science fairs; my mind immediately went to cool rocks and gems.
I did a lot of research on different types of rocks and gems that I might want to recreate for this project. I thought about doing petrified wood; and I still might tackle that one day! But since I’m having a real love affair with all things pink these days, I decided to go with Rose Quartz.
There are hundreds of examples of Rose Quartz spheres online in all kinds of colour tones and with different types of elaborate patterns. I used this one as an example; but you could really go in any direction with this! There are so many beautiful gems and stones that people turn into spheres; and it would be a great example for a kid’s Science fair project.
In fact, you could even grow your own Rose Quartz to go along with this giant specimen!
Here is a great idea for a Science experiment to go along with this from Visual Heart.
To make this giant Rose Quartz Sphere, I used:
8″ Make It Fun® Foam Ball (6 inch available here)
FloraCraft® Smooth Finish
Sand Paper
Martha Stewart Craft Paint in: Mother of Pearl, Lilac Cloud, Pink Taffeta, Fruit Punch, Arrowhead
Sea Sponge Paint Tools
High Gloss Mod Podge
I started with a couple of coats of smooth finish.
When covering the spheres I always start with a tool and then I end up just going to town and smoothing it on with my hands…
Let it dry and sand between coats (I sometimes use a blow dryer to help speed the process). I also gave it a finish sanding to get it all nice and smooth and ready to paint.
The soft colours of my Martha Stewart craft paints that I chose for this project were:
I gave it a base coat in the lilac cloud…
I used a sea sponge paint tool to speckle on paint in each of the other colours…
And I used a dry brush to smooth the speckled on paint out, giving the whole thing a layered finish.
You could play with the different colour combinations and work with speckling and smoothing paint until you love the effect! And, of course, if you were copying a different style of gemstone then you could use any other colours that would work.
Several coats of Mod Podge in GLOSS give it that shiny finish you want for a polished gemstone. I think I could even add a few more.
Done!
I could totally see this piece as a decorative object on a bookcase or in a spring or summer vignette; but it also is a great specimen for a kid’s science project!!
Check check for double usefulness!
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Check out some of my other Make it Fun team projects!
DIY Faux Copper Patina Vase / Faux Concrete Succulent Planter / Faux Aged Copper Vase Fillers
DIY Faux Wood LAKE Sign / Driftwood Tree / Faux Succulent Wreath (PB Knock Off)