Homemade Stepping Stones

Inexpensive Stepping Stones in 10 Easy Steps

Stepping stones are an easy way to add functional creativity to your garden. Here's a simple and inexpensive way to make your own in just 10 easy steps.

Supplies:

• Mold. This can be made out of anything that will hold cement: pizza boxes, disposable pie tins, cake pans, vinyl pot saucers, plastic take-out containers, etc.)

• Non-stick agent. This will "grease" your mold so the finished stone releases easily from the mold. You can use Vaseline, cooking spray, or plastic wrap.

• Quickrete (or other fast-setting concrete). If you want to add embellishments, choose a product with a sandy texture for a smoother finish.

• A bucket, stir stick, and large spoon. A one gallon ice cream pail is large enough to hold cement for one mold the size of a pie tin.

• Chicken wire or hardcloth. This will give the finished stone extra strength. Cut a piece to fit your mold before you mix up the concrete.

• Embellishments. Use your imagination here!

Directions:

1. Gather supplies.

2. Protect your work surface. It's helpful to use a piece of plywood or another movable surface for your work surface so you can move them to another location for curing. Then cover it with an old tarp, vinyl table cloth, or lawn-sized trash bags.

3. "Grease" your mold. Cover your mold with a heavy coating of cooking spray, Vaseline, or line the bottom of the mold with plastic wrap. This will help your stone release easily from the mold. Pizza boxes, plastic saucers, and pie tins generally don't need to be sprayed. Simply peel the sides of the mold away from the stone after it sets.

4. Mix up the concrete. Follow the directions according to the product's package. If necessary, add in more mix or water until the mix reaches the consistency of thick brownie batter. Take care to protect yourself with eyewear, gloves, and a face mask. Concrete dust can be hazardous when inhaled, and once mixed, cement can cause severe burns upon contact with your skin.

5. Scoop half of concrete mixture into the mold. Level out the surface by gently tapping it on your work surface.

6. Add chicken wire. Press the edges down so that no sharp ends are sticking up.

7. Scoop remaining concrete into mold.

8. Tap the mold gently (several times) on a hard, flat surface. This will level the surface and help release any air bubbles that might be trapped.

9. Add embellishments. Press them gently into the surface. Use stones, tiles, stained glass, leaves, pine cones, pot shards, scrapbooking embellishments, or whatever captures your imagination. Letters and numbers made specifically for stamping imprints into stepping stones can be found at most large craft stores. Cookie cutters are also great for stamping and making imprints.

10. Let it cure. Leave your stone to dry for 2-3 days before attempting to remove it from the mold. Plan to let it cure for at least another week before taking it outdoor and walking on it. As the stone continues to harden, mist it with water once or twice a day and keep it covered with plastic wrap. This will prevent it from drying too quickly and give it added strength.

Additional Hints:

• Mix up only enough concrete to make one mold at a time.

• Grease your mold, cut your chicken wire to size, and lay out your embellishments BEFORE mixing up the cement. Depending on what cement product you use, once it's mixed it usually sets up within a matter minutes.

• DON'T wash cement products down the sink! To save your bucket to reuse, wipe it out with moist paper towels and throw them in the garbage.

• Change the final color of the stone by adding acrylic or latex paint or cement dye to the mix. Stones decorated with paint after they cure should be sealed before being placed outdoors.

• Place stepping stones in the ground so that no more than 1/2 to 3/4 inch of the stone breaks the surface of the ground. This will protect the stone from cracking while being walked on and help people avoid tripping.

By Ellen Brown

Making Stepping Stones

No need to buy a 'stepping stone form' to create your garden stones; just dig a hole 4 inches deep in the desired shape wherever you want the stone and fill with quick mix concrete. Be careful not to breathe in any concrete dust!

For decorative stones (not path stones), try digging the hole in sand, dirt, or the gravel on the driveway. Fill with concrete, smooth with trowel, and press in pretty stones. Leave to set over night and lift out in the morning. Just don't make these too large to lift easily.

I have one by my garden bench that says 'Listen'. It reminds me to slow down and listen to the birdsong and the brook.

By Barb from Acra, NY

Easy Concrete Stepping Stones

Use half flat plant containers to make fast and easy paving stones for your garden. We had a bunch of half flat containers left over from buying plants this spring. I thought they would make great stepping stone molds but wasn't sure how to get the best results and be able to reuse the molds for future projects. I got the idea to line them with plastic and turned out to be the perfect solution.

Supplies

• Half flat plant containers
• Plastic garbage bags
• Scissors
• Bag of concrete mix
• Wheelbarrow or bucket to mic concrete
• Shovel

Instructions

1. Cut the garbage bag along the side and bottom of the bag and unfold it to make 1 large plastic sheet.

2. Cut the garbage bags to fit as a lining to the half flat containers. We found that we could easily get 4 from each garbage bag.

3. Line the half flat containers with the cut pieces of plastic. We found it helpful to wrap any extra loose plastic around the bottom of the mold as it was a bit windy that day. Keep it as flat as possible because folds in the plastic will show on your finished stepping stone.

4. Mix the concrete in your wheelbarrow or bucket. Use a shovel to stir the water in until it is the right consistency.

5. Scoop or pour the concrete mix into the molds

6. Lightly shake and tap the mold on the ground to level the concrete. This will also help push the concrete in to all the nooks and crannies of the mold design and reduce bubbles on what will be the top surface of the stepping stone.
7. Let the concrete set-up for about 24 hours

8. After the concrete is set, flip the mold over and remove it.

9. Now peal back the plastic to revel your new stepping stone.

10. The concrete will continue to dry out over the next few days, but you can put it in place right away.


By Jess from Hillsboro, OR

Craft: Lettered Step Stone

Here is a stepping stone I designed and made last spring. Seems that stepping stones are perennial favorites on craft sites so thought this would be helpful. I use a hot wire machine to cut letters out of styrofoam, glue the letters to the bottom of the form used (in a mirror image) then pour the concrete mixture into the forms. After setting 24-48 hours, my stepping stone is ready.

By Creativeman from Chatswoth, CA

Personalized Stepping Stones

I am making stepping stones with each family member's hand (or paw) prints and name! We are including all friends and family who visit and will be making one of my bf's mother who is 70! These are really fun and easy. I use Sakrete which is a kind of brick mortar. You shore up a small pizza box with duct tape and line it with a garbage bag. The Sakrete is less than 5 dollars for 80 pounds and I'm using 10 pounds per stone.

By Lily from South Bend, IN

Low Cost Recessed Stepping Stones

Seattle is known for it's rain. And with that rain comes muddy yards, so I needed stepping stones. But I didn't want to worry about my lawnmower hitting the stones, so I came up with a plan that worked perfectly! And all you need is cement or concrete, water and a shovel.

First of all, pick a day with no rain that's not very hot and cut your grass as short as you can in the area you want to place your stepping stones. Next (on the freshly cut grass) mark the exact outline of what you want each of your stepping stones to look like. (most people use a marking paint made for marking underground power cables, but I used plain white cooking flour which I sprinkled on with my hand).

The design I used was of "amoeba-like" asymmetrical and slightly interlocking "stones". Next, dig down into the ground about 4 - 6 inches (on and inside the line) while following the line you drew with your shovel. Lastly mix your cement with water (I mixed one bag at a time in a 5 gal bucket) then fill each freshly dug hole to the top with the wet cement. (The ground is your "mold")

*Buy about 1 small bag of concrete per hole depending on the size and depth of the hole. You can press several interesting sticks and leaves into the wet cement, these will look like "fossils" in the "stone". You can also stain the cement with a cement colorant so it looks like stone, (many colors are available) but I left mine plain and they turned out wonderful.

I chose a wavy path for my stepping stones (as opposed to a straight line) with one zigzag in it. This looks great with the "organic" interlocking shape of the recessed cement "stones" and I put a fountain with plants around it in the center where the path "zigged".

The stepping stones look like slate for a fraction of the price, but my favorite thing about them is that we could mow right over them with no harm to our mower blades! That and the way my shoes no longer got wet on my way to the car! I was told that without adding re-bar my stepping stones might crack, but they've been there for nearly 20 years now and have held up fine. But, truthfully, if they do crack, it just adds to the slate-like rock look. No big deal!