Fathers Day Stepping Stone

Last year I saw this post that showed how to create a Fathers Day stepping stone.

So this year when my children said that wanted a homemade gift to give to Daddy for Fathers Day I knew just what to do.

We made our own Fathers Day stepping stone!

I was very intimidated to work with concrete. You have to get the mixture just right and I figured I would have a goopy mess that was too wet to hold an imprint or else it would harden up too quickly for the kids to finish decorating it. But my kids were really excited about this project so we jumped in.

Supplies for Making a Stepping Stone:

First, we made the basic stepping stone. For this you will need a mold, concrete mix, water, oil or cooking spray, a bucket to mix the concrete in, and something to stir with. We started with a paint stirring stick but had to upgrade to a real spoon once we started mixing. You might also want to add some colorant to the concrete for a unique touch.

You can use a disposable round aluminum pan for the mold but I found this stepping stone mold at my local craft store. I knew the kids would need a lot of space to work with so I bought this bigger octagonal mold. You can also use basic quick setting concrete mix at your local hardware or home improvement store but the Stepping Stone Mix that was right beside the mold at the craft store was just the right amount to fill the mold. It even had the correct measurements for how much water to add to get just the right texture for that size mold. I thought I would ~~be lazy~~ save some time and just buy the stuff all in one place. The craft store even had some blue colorant that my son was really excited to try.

Directions for Making a Stepping Stone:

1. Coat your mold with oil so that it will easily release the stepping stone once it has dried.

2. Pour the concrete mix in the bucket. Our Stepping Stone Mix held 8 lbs. of concrete.

3. Add water per directions.

4. Mix to the consistency of sour cream.

5. Mix in colorant (optional).

6. Blend well then pour into mold.

7. Spread out concrete in mold to get a smooth surface.

8. Decorate and personalize for Dad. You can use a stick to write words or decorate the stone with small glass tiles or marbles.

The kids had plans for decorating their Fathers Day stepping stone before it dried. They started with each of them pressing their handprint into the wet concrete. Then they wanted to write “Daddy Rocks” in rocks so I added some dot letters to give them a guide for where to place the rocks. They pulled out their collection of pebbles and went to work filling in the letters.

Wet concrete is so much more forgiving than I expected. The picture above shows my children nicely working together on placing their pebbles on Daddy’s stepping stone. However, if you look closely you will notice that my 3 year old was poking her finger deep into the wet concrete. I didn’t even realize what she was doing until she had completely ruined two of the letters they had filled in and she had gouged out a chunk of wet concrete. But it was easy to smooth the concrete back in place and fix the letters.

We added each child’s initial to their handprints and a date.

Now we had to patiently wait for the concrete to dry and set.

We let it sit overnight and it popped right out of the mold the next day. It isn’t as blue as we were expecting. It looks almost like a bluish-silver metallic color but we’re pretty sure Daddy will love it.