How To Make Your Own Stepping Stones

You can easily make your own stepping stones for your garden or walkways around your house. You can also make beautiful stepping stones from basic materials around your home or garage. All you really need is some concrete, sand and decorative rock.

Most people will buy plastic molds to create stepping stones or pavers, but it isn't really necessary. I have created and even sold stepping stones and I never bought one mold. I would get plastic 5 gallon buckets and by using a limb saw or hand saw, I would cut the top 2 1/2 - 3 inches of the bucket off and keep the handle on it. This makes a round mold that you can use to make your stepping stones.

I would spread several of the homemade molds on a flat metal table, covered lightly with sand or even on the ground, where it's sandy. I would spray Pam non-stick spray on the inside of the molds to keep concrete from sticking to them.

I would then mix up some concrete, sand and water. Sometimes I would add some decorative rock to the mix as a sort of aggregate mix, but I usually would wait and sparingly push the decorative rock on top of the concrete I had just poured into the molds. That way I could make more stepping stones and It was easier to mix the concrete without the stone in it.

One trick is to have a wet sponge to wipe the top of the created stone to clean the concrete off of the decorative stone in the mix to make them come out very clean, before they set up.

I would then let the stepping stones set up overnight and then use the handles that are left on the bucket top molds to easily pull the mold off the stone.You can make other molds by using existing metal frames or making wooden frames for square molds or larger different shaped molds. Just use pam or even a rag with some cooking oil to wipe in the inside of the molds, between each pour, to keep the stones from sticking to the molds.

Making your own concrete stepping stones is easy, inexpensive and fun. You can include just about anything as material to make your stepping stones as fancy or simple as you like. I have used rose rocks, ceramic, marbles and other similar type material to incorporate into the stepping stones.