Personalize Your Garden - Create Your Own Stepping Stones

A garden with stepping stones is very inviting and will personalize your garden.

Stepping stones are available for purchase in garden centers in various sizes, shapes and colors. They are also usually quite expensive, especially when purchasing multiple stones. You can create your own stepping stones for less than half the cost.

It is easy to make your own homemade stepping stones. The stepping stone pictured with this article, a dog's pawprint, is an example of a homemade stepping stone.

The pawprint stepping stone was made by first creating an original in clay. Then a latex mold was made using a product called Mold Builder Liquid Latex Rubber. Several coats of this liquid product were painted on the original clay pawprint. After the last coat was applied, the mold was allowed to dry for 48 hours. (For detailed instructions, see product label.) For the next step, a quick drying cement mixture was prepared (See cement package instructions), and poured into the latex mold. This was left undisturbed to dry also for 48 hours, after which time the mold was removed from the cement.

In addition to the pawprint, other fun shapes to try are butterflies, ladybugs or flowers.

If you do not want to make a latex mold, you can still create your own stepping stones. Use a plastic, wooden or metal container in the size and shape you want, and just pour in your quick drying cement.

If you do not like the gray color of the cement and you want your stepping stones to be more colorful, dye may be added to the cement mixture before pouring.

If you have an artistic flair, using a stick you can draw on the cement, creating your own original design, while the cement is still wet.

Another idea is to add items such as glass florist stones, shells, broken ceramic pieces or other items. Lightly push these into the wet cement. Make sure that your stepping stone remains relatively flat so that it can be easily walked on once it is in your garden.

If this a family project, handprints or footprints can be a fun idea. Imagine a garden path of stepping stones, each imprinted with a handprint or footprint, one for each member of the family.

After your stepping stones are finished and completely dry, apply a few coats of cement sealer and allow to dry.

Have fun creating your garden path of your own unique homemade stepping stones.