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I made these seashell garden art stones the other day, just for variety. I still have to get acrylic sealer and spray them with it and let them dry, but otherwise they're done. I probably won't let anyone step on them, so they're more like garden art than stepping stones. Still, it's not that hard to make them so I could easily do stepping stones again if I got the mix.
two rectangular "garden art stones" (as opposed to stepping stones) with seashells and stones set in them
The directions weren't that great that came with the mix. It called for I think 2 or 2.5 cups of water, but the mix was only crumbly at that point, not a solid mix that would, you know, hold together. And mxing with a stick just didn't work for me, eventually I (the baker) just switched to using my hands. This worked great for the concrete, but did leave me with incredibly dry hands for several days afterwards. If I do that next time I'm going to have to wear gloves or something. Also it probably would have been worth it to have someone to switch off mixing concrete with, as it is definitely a spoon suck if you are low-spoon.
Anyway, the basic process is: mix concrete with water in a bucket, pour concrete into molds (I used roasting/pie tins from Goodwill), even out the top, stick whatever you're going to stick in it so that it's covered at least partway up, let dry for at least 24-48 hours before you move it. So if you're going to do this project, make sure you do it where you want the things to dry.
Total cost for the ones I did? $5 a stone. I got the concrete mix from a thrift store, but it would only have been a little more expensive if I'd used the ever-present 50% off coupons at a generic big box craft store. It would also be a little more if you paid for mosaic tiles, but again, you could use broken crockery (or things from yard sales/thrift stores) or mosaic tiles that happen to be on clearance/sale rather than the big shiny new ones. You could also use stones, as that worked fairly well, and you could definitely step on those. Or do the thing where you use someone's hand print and write their name, etc etc. There's a whole world of possibility.
I call it a success!
two rectangular "garden art stones" (as opposed to stepping stones) with seashells and stones set in them
The directions weren't that great that came with the mix. It called for I think 2 or 2.5 cups of water, but the mix was only crumbly at that point, not a solid mix that would, you know, hold together. And mxing with a stick just didn't work for me, eventually I (the baker) just switched to using my hands. This worked great for the concrete, but did leave me with incredibly dry hands for several days afterwards. If I do that next time I'm going to have to wear gloves or something. Also it probably would have been worth it to have someone to switch off mixing concrete with, as it is definitely a spoon suck if you are low-spoon.
Anyway, the basic process is: mix concrete with water in a bucket, pour concrete into molds (I used roasting/pie tins from Goodwill), even out the top, stick whatever you're going to stick in it so that it's covered at least partway up, let dry for at least 24-48 hours before you move it. So if you're going to do this project, make sure you do it where you want the things to dry.
Total cost for the ones I did? $5 a stone. I got the concrete mix from a thrift store, but it would only have been a little more expensive if I'd used the ever-present 50% off coupons at a generic big box craft store. It would also be a little more if you paid for mosaic tiles, but again, you could use broken crockery (or things from yard sales/thrift stores) or mosaic tiles that happen to be on clearance/sale rather than the big shiny new ones. You could also use stones, as that worked fairly well, and you could definitely step on those. Or do the thing where you use someone's hand print and write their name, etc etc. There's a whole world of possibility.
I call it a success!
