Bazinga! How to Make Cement Letters

Recently, I have been called the Martha Stewart of crafts by a few fellow bloggers (you know who you are, and thanks!) so I decided to take my craft projects up a notch.  Today, I bring you Cement Letters!

I headed to Pat Catans over the weekend and purchased two of those hard cardboard letters, and X and an O.  Because of all the love I have for my Sweetie, I decided to cement our hugs & kisses in stone, well, so to speak.  Each letter is approximately 8″ in height and 5″ in width, and about an inch thick.

First, I cut out the back of each letter with a knife, and removed the cardboard insides.  This will be the mold for the cement.  Do not cut the sides!

Next, I mixed up some quick drying cement & water in a bucket and made a pancake batter consistency.  If it is too thick to mix, add a little more water.  Too soupy, add a little more cement.  With quick drying cement, you truly have to work quickly as it sets really fast.  Always wear gloves when working with cement and a face mask as you do not want to breath in any cement dust.

Pour the cement into your cardboard letters carefully and make sure it fills up all the way up to the top of the mold.

Now, you need to wait.  This is the hard part.  You need to wait at least 24 hours to remove the mold from the letter.  Do not pick up or move your mold during this 24 hour period either.

Once your cement had hardened for 24 hours, it is time to remove the cardboard from the cement letter.  To tell you the truth, this part took a little time, but it was not hard to remove the cardboard, as it has stuck to your cement letter.  Just get one of your kitchen scrubbies, wet it, and gently rub back and forth on the cardboard and it just rolls off the letter.  Keep rubbing all around the letter until all of the cardboard is removed.  Rinse under water.  Set your letters outside to dry a bit more.

There you have it!  Cement letters for your bookshelf, your garden, a gift, your front porch, or anywhere you wish to add a little charm!  Now, I want to head back to Pat Catans and pick up a larger letter to make a really large one for the flower bed!  And, if I can find some cardboard numbers, I would like to make some cement house numbers to sit on the front porch too!  (Pat Catans just did not have any numbers when I was in the store)

NOTE:  If you wanted to “add” a stake to your cement letter or number, all you would need to do is make a little hole in the bottom of your letter or number mold first, insert the stake up into the letter mold, then pour the cement in the mold.  Once the cement dries, your stake will be securely attached to your letter!

With Memorial Day weekend coming up, why don’t you head on up to Pat Catans or your favorite craft store and pick up some letters to make for yourself!

DIY Cement Hand Tealight Holder

While we were recently working with cement, we had a brainstorming idea!  Since we love Halloween a lot, we decided to try making a Cement Hand to hold our tealights, and the results were awesome! 

In our last post, DIY Cement Tealight Holders, we showed you how to mix up your Quikrete Anchoring Cement, so you should be up to date on that part of the process.  So, now that you have mixed your cement, take your latex glove and carefully pour the cement in the fingers first so that they fill up, then fill the rest of the glove, but make sure you keep enough room at the top of the glove so you can twist the end together and clamp it off with a binder clip.

Next, lay the glove on a flat surface to dry.  To get your fingers to stand up in the air, slide the glove filled with cement up against a box to hold up the fingers. 

Then, take one of your laundry detergent caps that we used in making our other cement tealight holders, and hold it in place in the middle of the palm of your hand.  Keep holding the cap in place until you feel the cement start to harden.  (pushing down on the cap also helps get rid of any air bubbles you might get under the glove)  Keep pressing down on the cap until the entire hand has hardened, which is about 5-10 minutes.  Once the hand is formed well, let it sit for about another 10 minutes to cure properly.

Take off the binder clip and carefully cut the glove with scissors off the cement hand.  Work carefully around each finger, as part of the glove will be caught under the grooves of the bent fingers and you might need tweezers to remove all the glove in this area.  NOTE:  While making our first cement hand, we noticed that when we bent the fingers up against a box, the cement did not completely fill each finger to the tip, but that’s ok because it looks like a finger or two was cut off, just perfect for a Halloween effect! 

You now have a finished cement hand to hold your tealight candle, or perhaps you can fill the indent in the palm with paperclips!  If you use a cap large enough, the indent you make could possibly hold a drinking glass and use the cement hand as a coaster!  The possibilities are endless, but be creative, have fun, and make sure you wear your own pair of gloves when working with any kind of cement! 

If you make any Cement Hands yourself, please share with us what you have made!

Don’t Lose Your Head

Cement Skull

We think about Halloween all the time, and there’s only 266 days left until it’s here!  We are always looking for new & unique items to bring to you to enhance your Halloween decorating and enlarge your prop collection. 

 

We are proud to announce our new CEMENT SKULLS for Halloween that you can use in your own “Home Haunt” or hang on your wall in your home.  No matter where you decide to place it, it will definitely be a conversation piece!  Skull weighs in at a little over 3 pounds 11 ounces and is approximately 7 1/2″ x 5″ x 2 1/2″.   Each skull that is made will be slightly different from the photo shown due to how the cement dries.  When you place your order for your skull, we will start your mold for you and it will take a few days for the skull to completely dry before we can ship it to you.  Any questions, let us know!  We are here to enhance your scare factor for Halloween!  Keep checking back on our website for additional cement items, as we will be adding more items!  www.themesnthings.com

 

And for an example, you can even add “eyes” to your stone skull for a more eerie look!