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Once the cement is poured into the mold, do not move it! This can cause cracking (I found this out the hard way!).
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If you want to try making stepping stones with pans or other household items, buy them at garage sales or thrift shops.
- From Dave: "I found the best way to get the air bubbles out of the concrete, once you've poured the concrete in the mold and added some hardware cloth through the middle of the concrete and then roughly smoothed out the surface, is to set your mold atop your washing machine and put the machine through two spin cycles, one right after the other, even with the machine empty. This pretty much shakes all the air up out of the concrete and has a self-leveling effect on the surface of the concrete, giving you a nice, smooth surface to work with.
- From Vicki: "One tip I'd like to share that I haven't seen mentioned is to put your mold on a movable flat surface. I have a large cutting board that I put my molds on. That way, when I'm not working with it, I can put it aside. I'm going to ask my husband to cut up some plywood for me so I can work on and move several stones in a day."
- From a Reader: "I used a layer of sand on the bottom of the (cake) pan. When the mold was hard it pops right out, just brush the sand off the bottom and its ready."
- From Kenoly2000: "We made a garden stone with our 4-H group. My daughter just won a blue ribbon in the county fair for her stone. We used a pan from an old ice chest. You know - the small pan that sits in the top and holds sandwich meat. It's about 10" x 10". It's real easy to pop out of the tray once it's finished."
- From Holly: "My son made stepping stones in Boy Scouts last year. They used cheap aluminum pie pans from the dollar store. They worked really well. When the stone was dry my son just tore the pan from the stone and threw it away."
- From gkmarsh: "I use jelly molds and fancy cake tins purchased at yard sales for 50 cents or less. I found they stuck also. I put in saran wrap first and it worked fine."
- From Kangnroo: "We used pizza boxes as our molds. A local restaurant donated them to us. We used the mini size box which when folded gives you a stone about 6 or 7 inches across - perfect for small kids. We lined the boxes with wax paper to keep them from coming apart and when the stones were dry they popped right out and the paper peeled off with no problems. In fact you can reuse the boxes doing this."
I hope these tips help you and you have fun making your own stepping stones. Remember, if you have a helpful hint or tip about making stepping stones, please take a moment to post them for all to read.
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