Concrete Mosaic Hearts

Garden decorations! I love them, especially the projects that you can craft yourself. I love the satisfaction of walking around the garden and looking at the things you've grown and made for it.

I've used silicone baking moulds to make these concrete hearts. I've made plain concrete hearts before and then glued mosaic tiles onto them later on- that method is called the direct mosaic method- but here I'm using the indirect mosaic method.

The indirect method involves placing the tiles face-down into the moulds. I've pre cut some clear contact here to fit the heart shape moulds, and placed it sticky-side-up into the moulds. The tiles then have something to stick to to keep them in place for when you put concrete in.

You could also use paper and stick the tiles down using a glue stick if you wish.

It makes it tricky to see what colours you're using when you do the indirect method- but for this project it doesn't matter too much as the tiles are just placed randomly, and the end product gives a nice flat surface.

Now mix up some concrete. You could either use plain cement and sand and mix according to packet instructions, or just use some mortar mix which is premixed cement and sand. Place the moulds onto a board & use a spatula to fill the moulds with the concrete mix. 

Always make sure to add as little water as you can to your mix- that will make it stronger. I sometimes add a fortifier to my concrete mixes to make the mix even stronger again.

Jiggle and tap the board to help release any air bubbles to the surface. I like to then let the hearts set for around 1/2 an hour then cover them in plastic for a few days to keep them wet, so they can cure and harden. Keeping them moist whilst curing can also help your finished product be stronger.

Remove from plastic and pop out of moulds and let dry. 

Mine had a few air bubble holes in them which I filled with a pale grout, or you could make up a little more concrete mix and use that to patch up any holes.

This is a fun project that is easy enough for kids to do too. Mine certainly liked finding spots for them to go in the garden.

Jules :)

DIY Craft: Rhubarb Concrete Stepping Stones

Hello!

I have a DIY concrete craft for you today: rhubarb concrete stepping stones.

I have by no means come up with this project. I've just seen it done so many times and wanted to make some for our backyard and I'm sharing our experience.

It's sumer here! I am so happy the weather is warming up which means we're heading outdoors much more as a family on our one acre block. There are always jobs to do (so many weeds- ugh!) and big projects to work on that Jimmy has started. We are currently working on some crazy paving using slate in a new fire pit area. We have an electric cement mixer here (which I dubbed Jimmy's thermomix) and I decided to steal some of the mix so the kids could be outside alongside us working making stepping stones.

We laid out some plastic sheeting on an outdoor table and the girls picked some large rhubarb leaves from the garden. (See Jimmy, rhubarb IS useful for more than just apple and rhubarb pie :D)

The leaves have lots of cool veiny texture which captures really well in the concrete.

We had some pretty tough wire that we used for reinforcing (which you can see in the bottom left hand corner above), which Jimmy cut with a grinder. You will need some sort of wire to reinforce the stepping stones, if you need to cut by hand just use the thickest wire you can manage to cut by hand.

The girls then took handfuls of the concrete mix and slapped them down onto the leaf. You keep adding them till you reach near the edges. I get them to wear kids gloves as you don't want skin to come into contact with concrete. 

(For a nice strong concrete mix I like to use 1 part grey cement, 2 parts fine sand, and 1 one part coarse sand and a cement additive (optional) to packet instructions. You can also find suggested mixes on the sides of a bag of portland cement.)

We kept in from the edge of the leaf an inch or so, and shaped our leaves into heart shapes. Once we had one layer of concrete on the leaf, we placed our wire reinforcing in, then added another layer of concrete. Our stepping stones were around 1 1/2- 2" thick. 

The girls tended to make their edges a little thin so I needed to remind them to build them up to make them the same thickness as the centre of the stepping stone.

Once shaped, we let set for 1/2- 1 hour then came back and covered with plastic. I kept them damp and covered for one week to let them cure for extra strength. (A minimum of 3 days would be sufficient.) 

24 hours after they've been made you can peel the leaf off and neaten up any rough edges with a chisel or rasp. 

The kids had fun peeling pieces of leaves back! :) They were really stuck in there, but they come out easily when they're all dry.

I love how they turned out and want to make lots for all around the garden! Jimmy thinks the rhubarb has earned it's keep (he thinks it pointless keeping something that requires a tonne of sugar to do anything with.)

I hope you enjoyed our DIY craft rhubarb concrete stepping stones experience, please drop a comment if there's anything you'd like me to craft out of concrete. It's such a versatile product, and it lasts a long time as art in the garden. Affordable, and no kiln needed! 

Enjoy,

Jules :)