Let's Make a Birdbath! Tutorial

We had an impromptu meeting of the Sistas earlier last month after we all saw Joy blog about her Cement Birdbath. One of us learns how to make stuff out of cement without the rest of us? Oh no you didn't!

Marzipan and I marched ourselves right over there and soon found ourselves up to our wrists in wet cement. Ahhh, friendship...

You wouldn't want to be left out, would you? I thought not. Let's gather our supplies:

Leaf-Shaped Cement Birdbath

A bag of Mortar/Stucco Mix (a smooth, non-gravely quick drying concrete)
A bag of sand
Disposable plastic tablecloth
Garbage bags
Large container to mix concrete (we used a kitty litter box)
Plastic gloves
A big leaf (skunk cabbage works nicely)

You can see we raided Marzipan's rhubarb patch for our leaves, but any large leaf will work.



We began with the sand. We poured piles of play sand onto garbage bags we cut open like this:



Then we patted them into a rough leaf shape. Make it mounded in the center so it will hold water, like this:



Then we covered the sand with a piece of our disposable plastic table cloth (they sell these at the dollar store, you know.) like this:



Next, we pulled out our trusty kitty litter box and began to mix our concrete (you could use a aluminum roasting pan, or a Rubbermaid bin, or even a bucket.)



There is no science to this, just pour in some concrete then add some water. Mix it with your hands (please wear gloves!) until it's the consistency of brownie batter and smooth. (The consistency was cause for much discussion as we tried to determine a batter that resembled it. We finally settled on brownie batter.)

If it's too thin add more concrete, too thick add more water. Easy peasy.



Place your leaf onto the plastic covered sand and begin to cover with the wet concrete mix. Pat it and mold it into place. Don't let the edges get too thin, keep everything about 1/2 - 1 inch thick all around.



See us patting and molding? See how Joy's hubs is totally cool with us doing this on the patio? Mine? Not so much. I'll make more of these in my kids' sandbox.



Let dry overnight. This is a particularly antsy time for me as I'm all about immediate gratification....yawn...fidget...squirm...zzzzzzz...



Flip it over and peel the leaf away. Ideally, you will flip it and wait for the leaf to dry so it pulls away easily, but we all know I didn't do that. I peeled and picked and struggled with it for about an hour. It would have pulled right off had I waited.



See all the veins and leafiness? See all the details? Put it in your garden filled with water or just let it sit there looking all leafy, just waiting to catch a neighbor's eye. Once they see it you can puff up your chest and announce "I made it!"



You can paint it and seal it with concrete sealer if you want to. I might paint mine next week, if I do, I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out!

See you tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday your chance to link up with a cool tutorial for fun and prizes! So meet me back here and you can "Teach me Stuff"!

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