Garden Stepping Stones

I've been wanting to make cement stepping stones with the girls for quite awhile now. I just never got around to buying a bag of cement. When I saw this kit at the toy store, I knew we could finally make some stepping stones :)

I bought two of these kits and when we got home, the girls insisted on making them right away :)

The kits came with a bag of concrete mix, a plastic plate to make the stones in, some glass gems, glow in the dark stars, plastic gem pieces and glitter :) As well as a carving stick so you can write in the stone after it is partly dry. 

We mixed up the concrete by following the directions. It called for the bag of concrete mixed slowly with approx 200-240 ml of water. You have to mix it while you are slowly and carefully adding the water. If you add too much water, your concrete will end up too runny and will make it hard to add the decorations. 

We added a bit too much water to Sammie's concrete and the glass gems sank into the concrete a bit. A couple of them disappeared right into the concrete :(

Sammie loved decorating her concrete. She just dropped the decorations in randomly :) I think she used every piece that she could :)

We were more careful mixing the concrete up for Maddie's stone and it was much less runny.
She started out decorating her stone with a pattern, but then decided to add things randomly as well :)

Waiting for the stones to dry. After about half an hour of drying, the girls sprinkled the glitter on top of the stones. We let to dry for about an hour or two, then used the carving tool to write their names and the year on the stones.

The next day, the stones were completely dry and we took them out of the moulds :) They look great. I was surprised at how not heavy they were. I expected them to be a lot heavier.

The girls were having a hard time deciding on where to put their stepping stones. They wanted them someplace where they would be seen. Sammie was insistent that they were put someplace where she could actually step on them lol So they finally decided to use them outside Sammie's play house as a little walk way :)

The girls had a lot of fun making these stones, especially the decorating part :) Now that we have made them with a kit, I think we might have to try some more. I might just have to pick up a bag of concrete mix :) Maybe we can make a whole path leading to the play house.

If you are looking for other great garden activities and crafts, including cement tile art, be sure to check out Nurturestore's e-book The Garden Classroom. This is a great book filled with all sorts of gardening ideas that are sure to get your children interested in gardening :)

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