GREAT idea Debbie and I love all the colors

Cool idea! I need to make one like that for my sister's grandkids. She would love it, neat idea!

Ya'll are so sweet. Thanks. It's easy peasy and he loved getting his hands in the paint. Of course, that was several years ago, before he became a teenager. He just turned 13 and he's like a whole different child. I told him today to go find out what he did with my Darion and bring him back. He smiled his famous crooked smile at his old mama.

Here is yesterday's batch:



These were made using the glass that Bubbles so generously sent us. I drew and cut out the shapes we wanted onto paper, then I laminated the shapes in 3ml laminator. Then I cut them out with a razor blade and used them as stencils. We placed them directly on the concrete and sprinkled the glass into the cut out area.

Then patted the glass down and gently spread concrete over them. 24 hours later I used a scrub brush to wash away the excess concrete, revealing these beautiful patterns. We are thrilled with how well these worked out and I think we'll do all the rest of them using this technique.

If you're curious about the patterns, they are inspired after board games that we enjoy playing.

Top left: Shield from the game 'Dominion'.
Top right: Train from Ticket to Ride.
Right: City from Settlers of Catan.
Bottom right (and partially hidden): A Ship from Settlers of Catan.
Bottom left: A "meeple" or miniature person from Carcassonne.
Center: A sheaf of wheat from Agricola.

The wheat sheaf is upside down in the photo.

I think these turned out amazingly, and the glass bits settled into the concrete beautifully. I am confident that they will last and not fall out because the concrete really snugs up against the individual pieces.

We're going to do this again, next time making initials for each person in the family.

Totally COOL Dave and I thought the wheat was a vase of flowers

Love your theme and I can't wait to see photo of when they are all in place.

Thank you for the -easy to understand- directions of what you did!

Those are beautiful! Nice color combos too.

It's fun to watch the creativity grow and blossom!

Oh boy. And I still have bags and bags of glass from Bubbles.
Great job, Dave. Y'all are going to enjoy these for a very long time.

Great job! I'd probably feel like stepping over those, not on them!

So you pushed the glass into wet concrete then put a thin layer of more concrete over them? And then brushed the thin layer off? Was that to get concrete all around each piece of glass, all snug?

Shoe (jealous)

That's exactly right, Shoe. The glass was sprinkled on and then just patted down, but that wasn't sufficient.

So I used a thin smooth piece of plastic (a cutout from the 3ml lamination, actually) to run over the rest of the stone and then over the glass. That action just barely dragged some thin concrete over the glass. It also had the effect of smoothening out the stone's surface so that any sharp glass edges were laid on their side.

When we were done, you could hardly see the glass at all because the concrete had been spread out. This morning when I brushed it off, that extremely thin layer washed right off with no trouble but the glass is held fast.

I think after it cures for about a month, it'll be so firmly embedded that it'll never come out.

Where's the laminate that you used as a stencil? I didn't read that you removed it, or maybe I missed that step.

It's removed.

We placed it on top of the stones, sprinkled the glass down and patted the glass, and then right away removed the laminate.

So the stencil was big enough to cover the entire stone? That way when removing it none of the extra glass scattered onto the stone itself, right? I was wondering about the extra glass.

Yes, you're imagining it the way it occurred. The plastic did cover the entire stone, but there was no extra glass because we only poured a little at a time and brushed off what little excess there was.

When I first read it I was imagining the stencil as smaller; excess couldn't be brushed off if it were small. Glass would be all over the stone. Now I know.

I have some glass from Bubbles, too, a lot of it, in fact. I'm picking up hints where I can. Thanks.

It was actually a 8.5x11 sheet that we used for each stone. I'll take a picture of the stencils we made and that'll really answer all your remaining queries about it.

I love what your family has done together, Dave and Trish!

Thanks for changing the title of the thread too. These are SUPER Instructions!

I was like Sharon , a little confused where that laminate went. Thank you for explaining.

I went to get a picture but I can't find the stencils I had made. Trish might have thrown them away. If so, I'll take pictures of the next one we do!

How about a video????