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 Stepping Stones

Here's a great project for a family reunion and a great way to get stepping stones for your garden! In many of the craft stores, you can find kits for making stepping stones, but they usually are expensive and only make one stone. Here's some ideas and tips for making several stones at the same time.

Buy a bag of quick-mix cement at your local hardware/building store. Tell the salesperson what you're using it for and they'll steer you to the right type. A bag of cement is usually only a few dollars and it will make a lot of steps. You may want to share a bag with a friend. Using the directions on the bag, divide the water and cement mix down into fractions. It'll be easier to handle. Store the remaining cement mix for another weekend and another round of stepping stones!

Instead of buying expensive molds, gather plastic containers from your grocery store. The containers that hold pastries and salad and fruits work great and you can toss them after you're finished with them. Or you can use pizza boxes lined with tin foil.

Pour cement into molds. For stepping stones, the cement needs to be 2 inches thick. Smooth and level the cement and let sit for approximately 30 minutes, or until mixture is tacky and will hold an imprint.

Use cookie cutters, popsicle sticks, buttons, marbles, tiles, seashells, stones, or any other weather-proof items to decorate and inscribe your stone. Inscribe words of wisdom, the date, or names into the stones. Press handprints, footprints, or pawprints into the stone and hold approx. 30 seconds for a good print. **Immediately and thoroughly wash hands, feet, or paws after imprinting.**

Let stone dry completely (24 to 36 hours) before removing from mold. And you have your own Hollywood Walk of Fame!

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 Floral Fun

Looking for a way to capture the color of spring and summer blooms? Pressed flowers are an easy and fun way to decorate bookmarks, boxes, and more! First, go through your garden snipping blooms and greenery. Thin or flat flowers and leaves work best (such as pansies, columbine, daisies, etc.) Carrot tops make excellent background greenery. Place blooms and greens on a sheet of paper or inbetween the pages of an old phone book. Blooms and greens should not touch each other. Place another piece of paper on top and begin a new layer. After layering several papers this way, place several heavy books on top and wait about 10 days for the drying process to be completed. Dried flowers are very fragile, so handle with care.

Bookmarks--Cut a small rectangle (about 5 inches by 2 inches) out of cardstock. Start with the greenery and use a very small amount of glue. Arrange the greenery in a pleasing shape (leaving room at the top of the bookmark for a hole punch). Next, choose your flowers and arrange them on top of the greenery. Mix and match and have fun! After you've finished arranging flowers and greenery, cover both sides with clear contact paper (or have it laminated at a copy shop). Punch a hole in the top and tie it off with raffia or ribbon.

Boxes--Purchase a small cardboard box (comes in oval, circle, square, rectangle, and heart shapes at your favorite craft store). Paint with a light colored paint. Start with the greenery and glue to the top of the lid. Add flowers. After you've completed your arrangement, cover entire lid & flowers with decoupage or liquid acrylic varnish. (Spraying with a varnish won't give your flowers the protection they need.) Let dry. Embellish with ribbon or lace as desired. Makes a great Victorian-looking keepsake.

Picture Perfect--Do you have a favorite quotation you'd like to frame? Frame it with flowers! Using your a word processing program, find a font you like and print the quotation out onto regular typing paper. Take it to a copy shop and have it copied onto cardstock. **You may want to get more than 1 copy, just in case you want to make more than one!** Using a pencil, trace a large heart or oval shape around your quotation. You may want to place this in your frame to make sure it's centered and to estimate the flower placement. (8 1/2 by 11 paper will need to be trimmed to fit into an 8 x 10 mat or frame) Start with greenery again, and glue all around the outline (again using a minimal amount of glue), covering the pencil marks. (Any pencil marks not covered will eventually be covered by flowers.) Then start adding flowers. You may want to add more greenery to fill in some spots. Once you're satisfied with the results, let it dry for just a bit before putting it into a frame. Glue may seep through flowers and attach to glass. However, don't wait too long to get it into a frame, as it may begin to curl. Remember, use as little glue as possible. The glue tends to rehydrate the flowers. Display away from direct sunlight. Have fun!

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 >From the new "Kids @ Home" magazine -- Great Homemade Play Dough

3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 packages Kool-Aid
2 cups boiling water
3 Tablespoons oil

Mix flour, salt and Kool-Aid in a bowl, set aside.   Add oil to the boilsing water,  add to mixture.  Stir with a spoon. When cool, knead with your hands. Add flour as needed to obtain the right texture. Do not halve the recipe. Great to play with but doesn't dry well. For a smoother dough, mix the salt with the boiling water first. Store play dough in air-tight containers in the refrigerator when not in use. If it dries out, add warm water or vegetable oil a few drops at a time, then knead it. Keep these items around to aid in the fun -- popsicle sticks, plastic knives or spoons, plastic pizza cutters, candy molds or cookie cutters. Work on plastic mats or waxed paper. For great impressions, use jar lids, forks, potato mashers, coins, stones, leaves, hands or feet!

For a great pre-schooler's birthday gift: Make a batch of dough, color it, wrap it in colored plastic wrap, attach a couple of cookie cutters, top it off with curled ribbon and attach the recipe! Easy, fun and affordable!