How to Make DIY Concrete Stepping Stones

DIY Stepping Stone Supplies

 

How to Make Stepping Stones

Concrete stepping stones make the perfect DIY gift for parents and grand parents. They are sentimental and useful which is the perfect combination for a kid craft!

Step 1 – Prep the area

This is absolutely an outside project, and I recommend setting up near a water hose. I did not use a tarp, but if you want easy clean up, consider laying down a tarp. Also, make sure you have all of your supplies and embellishments within an arms reach.  Talk to the kids about their designs and let them pick out exactly what they want to use.

Step 2 – Cut the chicken wire

Use the wire cutters to cut the chicken wire into small enough shapes that will fit inside of the pie tin. You want to have the chicken wire ready to use when it’s time to pour the concrete into the molds.

Step 3 – Mix the concrete

I used a 5 gallon bucket, but if I did it again I would likely use a wheelbarrow to mix the concrete in. Mixing the concrete in the 5 gallon bucket was doable, but tricky. The more surface area you have to mix in, the easier it is to mix the concrete powder and water. The concrete should resemble thick cake batter. It is also fair to note that we mixed up about 1/2 of the bag and half of the bag made 8 stepping stones.

Step 4 – Spray the pie tins

Use non stick cooking spray to coat the pie tins in before you pour the concrete. This makes getting the DIY stepping stones out easy as pie!

Step 5 – Pour the concrete

Use a small garden shovel to scoop one large scoop of concrete into a pie tin. Then, place a peice of pre cut chicken wire on the concrete and scoop a few more scoops of concrete on top of the chicken wire.

Step 6 – Level the stepping stones

Use the trowel to level the stepping stones. I’m not going to lie, I skipped this step, and they turned out fine, but if you want a more even look I recommend using a trowel on the stop of each stone.

Step 7 – Embellish with stones

• Shells (We used these!)
• Rocks
• Marbles
• Vase filler gems
• Tiles (Next time, I will buy these!)
• Broken pottery
• Small plastic toys
• Dice
• Coins
• Leaf prints
• Concrete letter stamps (These look like fun!)

Step 9 –  Clean up

Clean up is easy as long as the concrete is still wet. I rinsed off of all of the tools and the bucket with the water hose while the kids were decorating the stones. If you let the concrete dry on your tools, it will be much harder to get the concrete off.

Frequently asked questions about DIY stepping stones

1. Will the marbles pop out?

Maybe! If you don’t set the marbles in the concrete far enough they will pop out. If this happens, just use a little super glue to stick the marble back in its spot after everything is dry.

2. What if I add too much water to the concrete?

If you notice the water pooling around the edge of your stepping stone, pick up the stepping stone and pour as much access water off of the top as possible. You can also gently apply a paper towel to the top of the stone to let it soak up excess water.

3. What if I want bigger stepping stones?

In this tutorial, they line a large pizza box with a garbage bag to make large square stepping stones. I haven’t personally tried it, but seems totally doable!

For more DIY stepping stone pictures, Annie made these stones with an entire preschool class. Here is another tutorial (in Swedish) about making stepping stones with an imprint from a giant leaf! Have you ever made concrete stepping stones with kids? I’d love to hear…

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