Garden Art

A couple of weeks ago it was Nannie Camp at my house all week with my grandchildren and niece Lyndi.  One of the crafts we made were cement stepping stones.  It was a blast!

All the kids helped with each step of the way.  They put their hand prints in the stones before the cement was totally set . After they sat for a day and hardened they painted and decorated them up. It was so much  fun watching their creative minds in action!!  They gave the finished creations to their Dad’s for Fathers Day.

We had an extra one left over, so I made one for my planter.  I stayed with the “hand” theme for mine.  But really the possibilities are endless.  While researching “Stepping Stones” I became quite inspired to make all kinds of things out of cement.  I see more garden art in my future!! It really is a lot of fun.  I thrifted some plastic containers ( see picture below) that look like a flower that I am going to use to mold the cement into flower shapes.  Can’t wait to get started on that one!

Check out the  step by step directions for our Nannie Camp Stepping Stones.   I am no expert when it comes to concrete or grout, but  they turned out pretty cute I do say!!

This is how I did it………………

Trace your hand on hardened cement stepping stone. I made mine previously with grandchildren-bought a bag of cement,mixed with water and poured into aluminum pans. Super easy and fun!

Grab your favorite color of acrylic paint a sponge brush and start painting in your hand.

The painted hand.

Gather some clear gems.

I used Liquid Nails to glue my clear gems to my painted hand.

Glue gems to your hand.

All done!

I chose to fill in the rest of the area with multi-color gems. But you can use whatever color you like.

Using the Liquid Nails I randomly glued the multi-color gems to the surface.

Done!

I bought from Home Depot a Grout that was already pre-mixed. I wanted my grout blue so I grabbed some acrylic paint I already had on hand. I cut the top off of an empty juice container to mix the grout and the paint in.

Squeeze in an amount that will give you the color you are looking for.

Blue!

Using a sponge, wet down the surface.

Pour some grout over the top.

Spread Grout. I put a bit too much (okay……waaaay too much) grout on mine!! Spread it out and fill in all the areas not covered with the gems. I used a sponge for this. Wipe off excess.

TIme to dry….took mine about two days to harden completely.

Once dry, use a sponge lightly dipped in water and wipe away the cloudy residue.

After you wipe away excess residue then take a soft cloth and in circular motion wipe the top some more. My gems shined right up!

Then you are ready to display! Looks great in your garden or in planter or anywhere you like!! Enjoy!

Here are stepping stones made by Brayden and Brinsley displayed by their front door!

All my grandchildren decorating their stepping stones.
Brayden-Amya-Brinsley-Alexa-Zayda-Cora-Zane(not pictured) and my niece Lyndi

My thrifted plastic trays that I am going to use to make cement molds that look like flowers.

About these ads