I can buy stepping stones from my local garden store but not only are they expensive, but they are either boring or don't have the designs that I want.
I've seen some fantastic designs on a search I did on the internet, using footprints and a scripture verse, but my question is, how can I make a mould when I don't even have a template to begin with?
Once, years ago, when we built our first house, the manufacturer of large, stamped square concrete slabs, went bankrupt, interupting the production of them. We were buying them little by little. They had a design of a Roman cartwheel and when 4 of them were put together it formed a complete wheel.
Anyway, my hubby decided if we were to finish it he would have to make them himself. He brushed one with engine oil, and made some wooden forms to go around it, making sure the forms were raised higher than the slab. He then make a batch of concrete up, and spread it over the slab... He then was able to make a mould of that design.
However, I don't have a design to go by and I don't want it to look like scratches in the concrete.
Does anyone have any idea of how I could do this. The footprint side of it is pretty easy.. I'll get my 10 y.o. to make her mark... she'll love it... but it's the writing that will be harder. If I'm making a mould, would I have to reverse the writing, so that when I make the mould, it will be the right way around?
This is all too confusing for my brain...lol
We have just landscaped our front garden and we are not having any lawn at all... Just mulch and plants, with some sort of stepping stones in the middle. I don't want to use wooden stepping stones, because my area is prone to termites and I don't want them anywhere near my house. Treated pine isn't good either, as I have planted some strawberry plants out the front.
Ok, first, I want to say, I think that most art stores like Michaels, and most hardware stores like Lowes and Home Depot sell stepping stone moulds. Of course, the easiest way to create a stepping stone is to by pre-made pavers from any garden department of a hardware stone. They run about $1-$3 per paver and you can choose from a couple of colors and from there...you can choose your idea. There are many differing ideas among mosaic artists as to what is the best way to do outdoor items. Honestly from my experiences, I use something like weldbond to adhere my tiles to the paver, or liquid fusion glue or clear seal by liquid nails. Then after 24 hours of cure time, I have had success with using a good grout and a half/half mixture of concrete acrylic based additive made by quikcrete and water. This additive helps with shrinkage/expansion during the weathering process. You can also use thinset mortar mix with the same half/half ratio of water and the concrete acrylic additive. By choosing this last process you must use this as both your adhesive and your grout. This is messy and I prefer the first method mentioned, though it is contraversial among the artists I speak with about using my first mentioned process for outdoors. If you should have questions about what I mean feel free to drop me a line. Happy Mosaicing!!!
Most craft stores have press in letters for making stones. Micheal's has stone making items so they most likely will have them. Though when I bought them a few years ago they were not cheap.
I've made stepping stones using a pizza box. I taped the corners of the box to make it a little more sturdy. I used pieces of tile from yard sales and made a pattern. I taped the front of the tile piece to the bottom of the pizza box (the pattern is then upside down, a drop of hot glue would work well also) to keep the pattern in place. Then mix up some concrete from Home Depot and pour. Let set several days. Tear off pizza box. The stepping stones I made have lasted for years and they get stepped on alot.
If you use broken bits of crockery as stepping stone decorations, then what do you think might happen to a child who trips and falls? One of my neighbors told me about her child slicing his arm open on a steel burglar alarm warning sign in her yard. We must be careful!
Try pouring wet concrete into an empty pizza box. Decorate with broken china or pepples stone and let dry. Tear the box away from the dried concete and you have a stepping stone.
Hi I made stepping stones out of purchased stones by making a frame out of wood 1 inch higher than block and adding mortar pressing whatever suits you into the mortar tile, broken dishes,shells, Jewery findings etc. Remove the frame after 2 or 3 hours and leave it alone for a few days. when you put it in the garden to weather don't walk on it right away. give it a couple of weeks. i've had mine for 7 years in WI and they are fine. Just like when I put them in. Plain mortar.
You could always print out the words onto a clear plastic sheet (like for over-head projectors), flip it over for your "backwards" print, and make a second copy of it. You can use that as your template for how the words should look on the mold, to print correctly on the stepping stone. In fact, it isn't like you can't tape a sheet of paper with the writing in black onto your window so the light shines through it, and then trace it on the back for the backwards writing. You can then use the back of your paper as your template.
Bev, I did this years ago with marbles and I had a postcard that I loved a saying about desert flowers and God etc. anyway I was dertemined to have it so I put the card into laminate and then after marbles were all placed I left room for my postcard and put it on when it was more that half dry. You might print out your saying and laminate it. I hope it helps and keep going you will have a pretty stone. Annie
Go to Home Depot (or any other home improvement store) and purchase a bag of cement and a half a dozen 12-inch plastic drip pans that you put under flower pots (to pour the concrete in). Then go to Michael's (or any arts and crafts store) and buy several bags of decorator marbles (the flattened kind).
Create stepping stones with footprints, hand prints, one with an alligator, a cross, star, swirl, butterfly and several other designs. You should be able to reuse the plastic pans. One bag of concrete makes about a dozen stepping stones. The total cost is about $15.
my aunt just finished her house off, and had a few extra kitchen tiles.. She stuck those in her garden, and while at first I was skeptical.. they look awesome!
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