If you read the post the other day about DIY Concrete Garden Balls than you might have noticed that I had to purchase 98 lbs of portland cement. I know what you’re thinking… what does 98 lbs of portland cement cost? $9. That’s right! It’s cheap. But now I have about 60lbs of leftover cement to use on other projects such as these easy DIY Stepping Stones. This is a great concrete project that’s simple, cost efficient and a great craft project for kids!
The first step is simple: prepare.
Working with concrete can be messy so take a second to prepare in advance and you’ll save yourself from trying to explain to your husband why your driveway has a fresh layer of cement on it.
To prepare you need to lay out a protective cover on the area you’ll be working. I just used an extra large trash bag spread out on the driveway. You’ll also need something to mix the concrete in (I used a 5 gallon bucket), access to water, a strong tool to stir the concrete, gloves, an old cup or ladle to pour with, a mold (or strong box) and anything you want to decorate it with such as colored glass or beads.
Start by mixing your concrete. How much you need depends on the size of the mold you’re using. I actually just used a really strong cardboard box that had extra thick sides. You can also find great items to use as a mold at the dollar store.
For a stepping stone you use straight portland cement mixed with water to make a thick batter.
Make sure it is well mixed and then pour it into your mold using the cup or ladle.
If you want your kids to help than I recommend doing all the above steps alone. Then once you have the cement poured into the mold you can bring in kids to help the rest of the way.
First we started by pouring glass beads down the middle of the stepping stone mold. They fell in and stayed in the perfect position.
Next we used some colored glass pieces that we had bought last year for another project. These we did have to push down gently to make sure all the edges were covered by the concrete. They do rounded edges though and I felt like they were perfectly safe for my kids to handle.
Finally we lightly pushed buttons down into the soft concrete just to kick it up a notch.
It’s fun for kids to see what you can make using items that you might not always think to use.
Some other ideas that you could use to make a stepping stone would be –
- pennies
- leaf imprints
- old costume jewelry
- plastic alphabet magnets
- bottle caps
We put it in our garden and immediately the resident 4 year old said “can I step on it?”. So I said “sure!”.
Now go get your hands in some concrete!
This would be a really great thing to do with kids when you landscape your yard or garden. My daughter loves to help her daddy when he works on the house, and we are going to tackle the garden this summer. I’m going to talk to him about getting some cement to make our own stepping stones.