DIY Stepping Stones- Beautiful...Easy...& Cheap!

I did not want to pay 12 to 15 dollars per stepping stone at a big-box store so I made these stepping stones for about $2 each I started with these grocery store half sheet cake pans so that come with a pan and a lid which allowed me to make two different design stones I also used a can of cooking spray one six by six tile for each stone made from the cake pan part of the set one bag of quikrete mortar for about every three to four stones and a piece of chicken wire for supporting the middle of each stone to mix the mortar it really is easiest to put a bag or two into a wheelbarrow add a little bit of water at a time and just keep mixing it until it's the right consistency definitely wear gloves because this mortar can burn your hands because the mortar takes a little while to dry you have plenty of time to work with stay with what you have for the stones with the tile in the middle the aluminum pans you want to spray them before you put the tile in because you want the tile to stick to the stone you don't want to get cooking spray on this tile then you're gonna place the tiles upside down in the center of each pan the stones I made with the cake pan lids I used random leaves from my garden to make an impression in the cement I found it helpful to just for a few minutes kind of flatten the leaves with books place the leaves upside down in the middle of the lid with the veiny side up so that's where the impression gets made into the cement you want to do this before you spray with the cooking spray because you want to spray the back of the leaves with spray because you want the leaves to come off of the cement unlike the tile that you want it to stick to the cement you then you're gonna gently fill each pan with a little bit of mortar about halfway up and after you get halfway you're gonna put the piece of chicken wire in between and then finish off the mortar for putting the mortar on the leaves I found it helpful to kind of drop mortar crumbly on top of the leaves to prevent them from slipping because they're gonna want to slip around with all of that cooking spray on there don't forget to put your piece of chicken wire in the middle I found that the method of putting crumbled pieces of mortar on top of the chicken wire to hold it down also helps before you start patting the mortar in and once I get all my pans filled I'm just gonna let them sit for about a day and a half I let these dry for about a day and a half and then carefully flip them over [Music] they might [Music] [Music] [Music] and when you pick them out be gentle but also don't be afraid to scrape a little bit sometimes the leaves kind of fold into the cement and they get in there pretty deep so I use this faculy knife to kind of scrape away [Music] you once you have a leaves picked out of your stones and they're nice and clean you're ready to put a little color on them if you want they don't have to be totally dry it's actually okay to have them be still damp or wet because you want the paint to kind of mousse into the indents I actually have my paint super watered down like really watered down it's like very runny I'm using a combination of two colors one is Clary sage from from Sharon Williams and it's just sample grade cheap I just happen to have it in the basement and then I'm also using and not not only mixed together in one thing and then I'm also using mindful gray which is another Sharon Williams color and they're both sample grade so you know it just runs right into the leaves once the paint was dry I sealed them maybe a little bit redundant but I used both the tile stone and grout sealer and a polyurethane and they look super nice couple tips on laying your stones dig a nice flat spot for your stone because you don't want it to wiggle or it will crack when someone steps on it put your stone in and then you're gonna backfill around the stone and really let that dirt settle in underneath the stone and that's it happy steppin thanks for watching

Channel: Kim's Creative

Views: 192,190

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Id: 2gNzAC2VBKw

Length: 7min 2sec (422 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 12 2020