A unique and fun way for children to add their mark in the garden. We created these stepping stones for the kids to use in their own garden corner. These were much more economical than the stepping stone kits or the precast stones from the garden store. Find your own materials to make them truly unique!
Time: 20 minutes per stepping stone
Age: Any Age
Level: Medium
Materials
Cooking spray or Vaseline
Rags and plastic or paper
Old container to mix cement (we found a wide tub worked well to work the water and cement together).
Decorations for your stones
Clean your forms if necessary and remove any stickers. We used deep 12 inch diametre plastic plant saucers.
Measure the dry cement into each form to the desired thickness to determine how much to mix up.
Grease your forms so the final stones will come out easily. Either a quick layer of Vaseline or cooking spray will work.
Mix your cement. Add small amounts of water as it will be absorbed quickly. You can use the package directions if you want but I preferred to play with the mixture on my own. You want a mixture about the consistency of pudding. It needs to hold its shape but also be wet enough to settle out the big bits.
Use the trowel to scoop portions into the mold. Patting the mixture in a bit seemed to eliminate the majority of the air bubbles. Level the top.
Let the fun begin! Put in hand prints, foot prints, collected stones, shiny stones, firm shells, broken china bits, or tiles.
Clean up as soon as possible to avoid the cement hardening on your trowel and container. We used an old rag to wipe off most of the excess material to dispose of in the garbage. Cement mixture should not be rinsed onto a lawn or storm drain.
Set aside and let dry overnight. You may remove them from the forms but we let ours dry 3 days before putting them outside.
According to the cement package directions, cement mix contains corrosive materials so caution should be used when working with it. Wear proper safety equipment as recommended and do not let children around the dust. We quickly washed hands after putting our hand prints in and washed all clothes after we finished our stones.
Categories
#Garden Stones
#Cement
#Molds
#Rocks
#Handprints
#Footprints
#Outdoor
#Medium
#Any Age
