Living so close to my local beach I was inspired by the shoreline and found that this was something I needed to try. On a daily basis I see people picking up and feeling pebbles, fiddling with them and often putting them in their pockets to take home. To be able to create a picture from them too, can only be a progression.

Even if we were unlucky enough to have had bad weather, we still take shells etc. as keepsakes when we return home.

Using pebbles for mosaics is an interesting idea, being not only easy to make, but they are very effective and quite popular.

Like most things in life, there is a bit of an art to it! Most important being what you choose for your picture and how you design it. You can try and create an abstract sort of picture. Success probably lies in the actual colouring of the pebbles you choose.

So if you want to create a beach and shore picture you will need the following colours. Various shades of white, grey and a dark brown maroony colour, plus for the shore, a sand colour.

The bottom of your picture will need the sand colour, darkest shades like purple at the top, with a mix of whites and greys below this.

You will need a few items before you can get started. Mainly a deep picture frame, some white wood primer, white paper, some blue emulsion, a medium type grade of sandpaper, panel pins, matt acrylic varnish, PVA adhesive, a decorators brush and some half inch MDF.

Added to these items you will need gravel, pebbles and any bit of driftwood would certainly be an advantage. So, first sort out your pebbles and any driftwood into colour and size. Always keep in mind what sort of picture you are aiming for.

Get rid of anything you are not going to use for your design. Any gaps that you may have you can fill with gravel if you keep some by you.

So, now we take the picture frame apart. Remove the backing, the glass and its mat. Sandpaper the frame thoroughly out and in before you apply white primer to it. Now you must leave it to dry.

Once this is dry take out your blue emulsion and paint your frame. Let this dry, then you can rub this down with sandpaper so that you have glints of your white primer coming through, in what I call, a distressed look. It would be better then to apply an acrylic matt varnish to the frame to seal it.

Take your white piece of paper and now place your frame backing board on it and draw round it. This gives you your working area. Sort out your design on it, slotting your pebbles and driftwood together to make up your pattern.

The back of your picture frame needs covering with MDF, cut to the size of it. You then need to place your backing board on to the centre of it to get your work area for your mosaic and simply draw round it.

The tricky job now is moving your mosaic to the MDF. Do this carefully. You need to put a splodge of PVA glue on each pebble or bit of driftwood before you position it on the MDF.

You have to think about the pebbles colours as you form lines with them. You can alter these fairly easily, but it needs to be quite a tight fit. So, now everything has been glued down. Just do a final check that it is really tight fitting.

Do not bother with small spaces, but you can fill in any big spaces with fine gravel. If you have any driftwood remaining, you can glue bits across others. With panel pins, go from the back through your frame, to pin your frame down into position.

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