Because my job is tied to the school year, we had our year-end celebration today! This was actually very bittersweet, as budget cuts to our program mean that many of us will not be coming back to our office in September. As a result of that, I think that an afternoon off was well-deserved, particularly when you consider how COVID-19 has turned our jobs upside down for the last few months.

• 30kg Quikrete Ready-to-Use Concrete Mix
• 23cm Tin Pie Plate (Disposable)
• Miscellaneous decorations (e.g., glass stones, seashells, coins, marbles)
• Water

Tutorial by Sherri at The Spruce Crafts

I won’t lie, I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired on this afternoon, so I ended up taking a fun approach, rather than aiming for a minimal or carefully designed layout. As a result, I made Kevin! He is named after our office site (St. Kevin), and will be a happy reminder of this job and its people. Other coworkers made much prettier stepping stones!

These pictures were taken at varying stages of the concrete drying, so just be aware that the colour of the concrete does lighten. This will help the glass stones and other decorations to “pop” more against the background! We didn’t grease the pie plates beforehand, as we were assured that the concrete would slide out easily regardless. However, if you are worried about the concrete sticking, you could certainly grease it just to be safe.

I think the approximate ratio of concrete-water was 1:2, but I would double check with what the packaging says. We had a lovely volunteer do all the concrete mixing, so I didn’t have to do that part myself. She had actually done this before, so she was able to give us some pointers. One of the suggestions was laying out the decorations beforehand on a piece of paper, as it is nigh impossible to move things smoothly once they have been placed into the wet concrete. Some of my coworkers who had more carefully laid out plans found this very helpful. Have you ever done any crafts with your coworkers?

I don’t have a garden or backyard in my current apartment, so Kevin is currently just hanging out on my balcony. I think this would be a fun craft to do with friends, especially given how much concrete mix comes in a single package. Younger children may like it as well, particularly if they get to leave handprints or footprints!

Until next time, happy crafting!