Stepping Stones with Pawprints

You could do this project with pawprints, handprints, or any other kind of print.

Procedure: First, mix cement with water in a large bucket. We got a 60-pound bag of cement from Home Depot. We used a long thick-diameter wooden dowel and a trowel to mix the cement with the water. Then we coated our molds with cooking spray to prevent sticking and poured the cement into them. You can use pie dishes or any disposable plastic or aluminum container. The mixture should be difficult to smooth, but not so grainy that you can’t smooth it all together and get rid of air pockets. Excess water rises to the top, so place a paper towel on top of the freshly laid and smoothed concrete and blot it. Then we firmly pressed each toe of the animal’s paw into the wet concrete. After making a print, we thoroughly washed the animal’s paw. We added glass marbles to our design which are best to add when the concrete is rather wet, so that the stones can be properly nestled into the concrete. We also added letters to our stepping stones using stamps.

Tip: The letters were best to add when the concrete was a little drier in order to avoid water pooling in the cavities of the freshly stamped letters.