Anyone out there make your own stepping stones? I have heard of making them with concrete in pie plates and such. They cost so much to buy I thought we might as well make our own and be a little creative. Any ideas?

Believe me...this is something I've been wanting to do for years now! Even had DH build me a "jig". Just a square (I wanted my stones square instead of round) of wood with a wooden bottom. You could use an old picture frame with a wooden bottom, or just set it right on the ground (with no bottom and pour). You have to let it cure for a couple of days, so, leaving it on the ground and exposed to the elements for 2-3 days might not be a good idea. You could also use old cake pans or cookie sheets with at least a couple inch lip.

Ready mix concrete. Some baby powder in bottom mold to help it slip out easier or line it in heavy plastic to "dump" it out cleanly. Before it sets, use your creative imagination. With, maybe a skewer of some kind, write something. Draw something. Imprint a leaf or flowers. Or press pieces of broken ceramics or pottery. Create a mosaic, "stained glass" effect. Come back later and paint around broken pieces with black paint to simulate lead lines.

I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna do it! Probably just before gardening season ends!

Here's some ideas:

http://houseandhome.msn.com/Garden/MakeColorfulSteppingStones0.aspx
http://www.homestore.ca/Tabs/LawnGarden/Outdoor/steppingstones.asp


gardenz

Hey Hollyberry do it you will love it. I make my own with a basic concrete mix; three parts sand, two parts gravel, one part portland, and a touch of lime. If you mix in wood ash it will darken the color. My favorite stones are made in a 9x12 baking dish. I put a grocery plastic bag in the pan,(it gives the stones texture), then pour in concrete and let it sit in the shade for a week while keeping it moist. I sometimes remove them after a day and let my daughter scratch designs on it. One of my best is where she wrote"I love you mommy and daddy". It always makes me smile.

Peace

Calmpeace,

Re the plastic grocery bag addition......

Gives it a kind of "pebbl-y" appearance?
Is this for the underside of the stone (where it touches the soil, so it "grabs" better) or for the top, to make traction on it less slippery?

Now, I just GOTTA try this!!!! :_|

gardenz

I bought a plastic mold out of the Pinetree catalog one year to make stepping stones. I just bought a bag of redi-mix and mixed up a bucketful now and then. Sprayed the mold with a little WD-40 and dumped the mix in and let it set until I remembered to go make another one. I never did get very many made.

If I were to do it again, I'd make 2x4(lots of them) frames and just lay them on the ground, pour the concrete, cover with plastic till they were cured, then move them where I wanted them. One stepping stone at a time was just too tedious.

Gardenz,seems you could make them to add to your business to sell...leaf and plant prints superimposed on the wet cement,like botanical prints

Hey gardenz, laying the plastic bag in first allows the hardened concrete to come out of the form with ease and if you remove it right away it will pull away from the concrete leaving a sort of pattern. The underside of the "stone" is the top of the pan and it is heavy enough to stay in place.

If you use ready mix concrete 1 40 pound bag makes about 3 stones. It really isn't all that economical but hand made for me is always better than store bought.

I mix my own concrete which cuts the cost down to about .50 cents per stone and allows me to make a better mix ratio.

Have fun.

Peace

I've bought the kit for making stepping stones (letter dice for imprinting words, colourful glass beads for fanciful decoration, and a mould in the shape of a square and a flower). I've made 3 so far, with my handprint and my daughter's handprint from two years ago, my daughter's handprints from last year, and our cats' paw prints from a couple of years ago. Vaseline your cats' paws before imprinting the stone, so the concrete doesn't stick.

They're more expensive than mixing your own concrete and using cake pans, but I don't make pathways, just places in the garden to put my feet, so I don't step in the dirt or on a plant.

Garden centres probably sell the kits, if you want to try it that way.

This may be just slightly off topic, but....has anyone ever tried making a pathway or really large stepping stones out of those rigid plastic molds that look like many cobblestones or bricks in a 2'X 2'mold?
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_small_space/article/...3572_1386952,00.html

Been thinking about trying this on a long-pathway run.
How much will one bag of conrete [really] make? Are they durable?
Are there any other hints or tips needed to know before attempting this?

Thanks.

gardenz

Concrete is easy to work with gardenz. The blocks can break fairly easy but if placed on a flat surface they are very durable. You can lay pieces of wire fencing in the concrete for added strength but I don't. The hardness of concrete is largely determined by the water and mix ratio as well as the length of time allowed to cure. Once poured concrete drys it no longer cures so keep it moist for at least a week.

A 40 pound bag of ready mix will yield about a cubic foot of concrete. I think it works much better if you mix your own and it is not complicated. In either case add water slowly till you learn how much you will need to make a good paste. Too much water in the mix causes layered setteling and you end up with weak concrete.

Peace

I have made dozens of stepping stones, just out of plain old bagged cement. 2 parts gravel, 1 part cement and enough water to make it soupy. (too little water makes it have little holes on top - too much and it just isn't right) Spray container with Pam or wd40 and it will slip right out when cured. I use baking tins and jelly molds that I buy at garage sales. I have even used an old wok for the top of a mushroom. Paint with acrylics and finish with a clear coat that is good for outside.

This is great, some friends of mine and I were just talking about this very thig. We are all getting together, and making stepping stones in a couple days.
So thanks for your ideas.
One of the Ladies has done this before. She has some realy good ones. She also mentioned, that pouring in to the mold directly on the gound makes them very uneven on the bottom. So if you want to move them to another spot it may wabble untill it settles in.

Another thing she mentioned is, if you want to put in a design with tile or staind glass, or other objects, you can use a piece of contact paper, cut to fit the bottom of the mold, with the sticky side up. Place your pieces of tile ect. on the sticky to hold it in place while you pour . When it's cured and you turn it out, just peel the contact paper off.


Feather

I have been using one of those molds that looks like cobblestones to make a pathway in my garden. I really like the way it is turning out. I have found that one bag of quickcrete will fill my mold up once with enough left over fill two plastic containers I use as molds for stepping stones. I have been smoothing the tops and pressing in all kinds of different leaves, grasses, pine cones and twigs. They brush off after the cement hardens and leave a beautiful imprint. My friend lent me the mold after using it to make her pathway....it has been in place for years and looks great. She pressed in beach stones and colored pebbles. They look great but are kind of rough on bare feet.

Here is a link to the infamous stained glass sidewalk that my husband made:
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/cloisters/888/sidewalk.html

He built the forms himself, and used contact paper to stick his glass to before he poured the concrete. (Remember the design comes out reversed - esp when using numbers & letters) Some of the stones were done with no cutting or grinding at all- and some were cut and ground just like his regular stained glass. He used a thick coat of petroleum jelly as a mold release around the edges of his wood forms.

The edges of the glass are enclosed by the concrete, and surprizingly - the stained glass stones melted snow or ice before the plain ones. They were there for 3 years when we moved away, and lasted very well. They were quite the talk of the neighborhood.

One bag of quickrete would make two hexagons and one rectangle. He also would tap them quite a long time after pouring to get the air bubbles out.

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