You can gather your own materials and with some smart shopping, make a garden full of stepping stones for the price of a do it yourself kit that will only make one stone. Plus you can get as creative as you want. This is a great family project. One bag of cement/concrete is enough to make several stones. Each child could make their own personal stepping stone for the garden.

Supplies Needed:

Disposable aluminum foil baking pans - cake pans, pie pans - in various sizes and shapes (Tip: To make things more interesting and fun try to find fun shapes like hearts, stars, bunnies, flowers, etc. Shop around holiday times to stock up on fun shapes to make in the spring or summer. Around Easter time you can usually find bunnies, eggs and flowers, Valentine's Day you can find hearts.)

Mortar or quick drying cement/concrete mix

Small rocks, marbles, glass decorator rocks, broken pieces of pottery, small mosaic tiles, or fish tank rocks

Heavy Duty Scissors

A file or rough grit sandpaper

Directions:

1. Gather all of your materials. Most all of the items can be found at dollar stores or craft stores except for the mortar or concrete mix which can be found at stores like The Home Depot and Lowe's.

2. Set out your pans on a level surface outside where they will not get wet for at least 24 hours. I prefer to lay them out on the ground so I don't make a mess on my tables.

3. Mix concrete or mortar following manufacturer's directions.

4. Pour mixture into pans. Leave about ½ inch space from the top of the mixture to the top of the pan. If you have really deep pans, only fill the pan with a mixture of about 1 ½ inches thick.

5. This is the fun part. As the mixture starts to set you need to start putting in all of your items. Be creative with your designs. Push your rocks, glass, marbles, or pieces of pottery firmly into the mixture. You want to make sure they are deep enough into the mixture to stay put but not be covered by the mixture. You can also use a stick to write words into the mixture or have the kids press their handprints in for a cherished keepsake.

6. Allow to set completely. To be safe I usually let them dry overnight.

7. Once stones are dry gently remove them from the pans. Sometimes they don't want to come out so you might need heavy duty scissors to cut the pan away from the stone. Be careful if you have to do this because the foil pan is very sharp. This is why I recommend using disposable pans in case the stones do not want to come out.

8. If you have any rough or sharp edges you may want to file them down with an old file or some heavy duty, very rough grit sandpaper.Now you can add a more personal touch and fill your garden with unique, hand made stepping stones.