- Protect your work surface before painting.
- Make sure your rocks are clean and dry before starting.
- Let paint dry fully between coats and when changing colors.
- Apply as many coats as necessary to achieve desired coverage.
Shamrock Painted Rocks: a Shimmery St. Patrick’s Day Craft
Make Shamrock Painted Rocks (or, ahem, Sham-Rocks!) to hide around the neighborhood for some lucky person to find. These little shamrock art pieces are filled with the green and gold of the holiday.
Painted rocks make ideal St. Patrick’s Day shamrock crafts for any age group.
Preschoolers can adjust the difficulty of the painting to their abilities, while teens and adults can create more intricate designs. Add rainbows, pots of gold, or a dotted shamrock design if it suits your fancy.
This page may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through my link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Table of Contents
How to Paint Shamrock Rocks
For these Shamrock painted rocks, I used a combination of my favorite rock painting supplies.
St. Patrick’s Day painted rock supplies:
- Americana acrylic paint, Kelly Green
- Patio Paint, Bright Citrus Green
- Shimmering Metallics paint, gold
- Acrylic paint markers
- Variety of wide and narrow paint brushes
- Dotting tools
Using several colors of green paint gives the rocks extra interest when they’re all displayed together. Metallic paint gives the extraordinary glimmery golden sheen. Paint markers make the rainbow stripes easy.
Build your design starting with the basecoat and a 3/4″ brush, and let dry between layers. Paint a mix of greens and gold base coats for variety. When base coats are dry, paint focal shamrocks or other larger designs.
Then finish by accenting with outlines, painting dots, or other details. For some added sparkle, finish with Glamour Dust glitter paint accents.
Shamrock painted rocks are easy for kids, teens, and adults to do together, and are a fantastic craft for parties!
More St. Patrick’s Day Crafts and Activities
- Shamrock bookmark to print and color
- St. Patrick’s Day printable activity page
- Rainbow crafts ideas for kids
Pin these Shamrock Painted Rocks to make later:
Your shares are how this site grows, and I am genuinely appreciative when you do. Pin to your Rock Painting Pinterest board or share this idea to a craft group on Facebook.
Carla Schauer
I love color, pattern, terrible puns and loud 80s music.
I’ve been creating and teaching craft tutorials since 2005, for magazines, manufacturers, and here at CSD.
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ShamROCKS and Gold Nuggets St Patrick’s Day Crafts
If you’re looking for some simple, nature-inspired St Patrick’s Day crafts then consider yourself lucky! We’ll show you how to make these festive shamrocks and gold nugget painted rocks just in time for St. Paddy’s day.
Easy St. Patrick’s Day Crafts
Although we love the joy and fun of this special day, t he truth is, we don’t make nearly enough St Patrick’s day crafts. We’re determined to change that this year and have a little party with the kids. Keep scrolling to the end for additional easy St Patrick’s Day crafts for kids to help with as well.
Painting rocks has become one of our favourite crafts for just about any time of year and little gold nuggets are the perfect spring bling.
If you also love rock painting, be sure to explore our Christmas themed painted rocks, painted mandala hearts or our summer time shark painted rocks for more ideas.
These painted green shamrocks and gold nuggets are a simple St Patricks Day craft idea that even preschoolers could help with. Give them a little pair of gloves and let them turn rocks into gold!
These painted rocks will look great as part of anyone’s St Patrick’s Day party decorations. So add some extra luck to your tablescape with a pot of gold and some green shamrocks. They’d be perfect alongside a plate of our green crinkle cookies!
Tips for painting on rocks:
- Protect your work surface before painting.
- Make sure your rocks are clean and dry before starting.
- Let paint dry fully between coats and when changing colors.
- Apply as many coats as necessary to achieve desired coverage.
Materials Needed:
Disclosures: We have not received any compensation for this post. However, we have (and continue to) receive products from DecoArt. Also, this post continues affiliate links for your shopping convenience. You can find our full disclosure policy here.
For Gold Nuggets:
- Decoart Americana Metallics in Old Gold
- Medium sized acrylic paint brush
- Rocks (with rough and jagged edges, small to medium sized, approx. ¾” diameter)
For Shamrock Painted Rocks:
- Decoart Americana Acrylics in Sour Apple and Festive Green
- Fine tipped acrylic paint brush
- Rocks (with a smooth surface in assorted sizes)
Instructions for painting gold nuggets:
With a brush, paint each jagged rock in old gold and put aside to dry before applying a second coat.
Instructions for painting shamrocks on rocks:
Using festive green, paint one small heart shape as shown.
Paint a second heart shape as shown.
Paint a third heart shape as shown on the opposite side.
Connect all three hearts and carefully paint one stem with the tip of the paint brush.
Dip the paint brush in sour apple and mix with water. Paint the inside of the shamrock leaving the edges in festive green still visible. Leave to dry.
Using sour apple, paint highlights to the tops of each shamrock leaf. Leave to dry.
And that’s it! You can quickly create a whole field of clovers and pot of gold nuggets!
Looking for more St Patrick’s Day crafts?
Here are some additional Saint Patrick’s Day crafts to explore:
- quick and easy decorative spheres with dollar store supplies;
- pretty and delicious rainbow Jello cups;
- this St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin idea is perfect for keeping the toddlers entertained;
- make an adorable leprechaun garden with the kids!
We hope you have a wonderful and lucky St. Patrick’s Day!
Like it? Pin it for later!
St. Patrick’s Day and Shamrock Painted Rocks to Inspire You
See below the best supplies for making your own St. Patrick’s day rock painting ideas and get inspired by these fun ideas. They make great activities to do at home with the kids, crafts for the classroom, or projects for adults to get creative.
Rock Painting Supplies
For more tips on the best supplies for painting rocks see this post.
St. Patricks Day Painted Rocks Ideas and Rock Painting Inspiration
Artists or tutorials are linked for each pictures
Easy Idea – Rainbow Shamrock Painted Rocks
Shamrock painted rocks by Color Made Happy painted in rainbow colors with cute kawaii faces added.
Leprechaun Painted Rock
Cute leprechaun painted rock design. (artist unknown)
Lucky Shamrock
Gold Coins and Rainbow Painted Rocks for St. Patrick’s Day
Colorful rainbow painted rock with gold coins and shamrocks. (artist unknown)
Rocks to Inspire Kindness
Pot-o-Gold St. Patrick’s Day Rock Idea
Leprechaun hat and pot of gold painted rock with a beautiful blended rainbow design. (artist unknown)
Gnome Painted Rocks
St. Patrick’s day gnome painted rocks. (artist unknown)
Colorful Gnome Rock Idea for St. Patrick’s Day
Cute St. Patrick’s painted rocks with a colorful gnome painted rock and colorful luck painted stone by Jenevere Rocks.
Mandala Painted Rock Inspiration
Mandala painted rock design. (artist unknown)
Shamrock and Pot of Gold Painted Rock
Pot of gold painted rock. (artist unknown)
Leprechaun Hat Painting Idea
St. Patrick’s day hat painted rock. (artist unknown)
Green Painted Rock Heart Design Inspiration
Saint Patrick’s Day painted rock heart design. (artist unknown)
Hedgehog Holding a Shamrock Painted Rock
Hedgehog kindness painted rock for St. Patrick’s Day by RockyPandaCraft
Follow the Rainbow
Pot of gold rainbow painted rock by Rock Painting 101.
Lucky Shamrock Ideas for St. Patrick’s Day Painted Rocks
Green Shamrock Ladybug Painted Rock Idea to Inspire You
St. Patrick’s day lady bug painted rock by Lory Rocks. Shop her Etsy shop here.
Cute Gnome Painting Ideas
St. Patrick’s Day Themed Vintage Truck With Shamrocks
Dot Painted Lucky Clover Design
Dot painted rocks in a lucky clover rock painting design by Create and Cherish.
Tall Hat Gnome For Long Painted Rocks
Cartoon Leprechaun Rock Painting Idea
Cute cartoon leprechaun painted rocks. (artist unknown)
Are you feeling inspired to create your own St. Patrick’s Day painted rocks? I’d love to see what you come up with. Come share you finished painted rock designs with my on social media at @ColorMadeHappy.
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