Creating Mosaic Garden Stones

I fell in love with this Mosaic At Disney's California Adventure.  It is truly a masterpiece with its vibrant colors and unique design.  It also offers amazing tactile opportunities with unexpected protruding elements and a variety of textures.

Ever since I saw it I have been obsessing about doing mosaic stones for our garden.  I bought some colored ceramic plates and glass stones from the dollar store and my husband picked up some concrete at Home Depot for $5.  To break the plates, I put each plate inside a ziplock, then inside a small trash bag and then in a large trash bag.  Before taking my hammer to each plate, I put on safety goggles to protect my eyes from stray shards and gardening gloves to protect my hands from microscopic cuts that occur when handling broken ceramic pieces.

I need order to create freely.  If things are in disarray I become distracted and frazzled so I was compelled to separate all the different colors and types of mosaic tiles into tupperware and then I placed them in the kids wagon so I could move them around when I wanted to work elsewhere.  I called it my "Wagon of Wonderful."

Just looking at this "Wagon of Wonderful" made me happy.

Next I traced the perimeter of the tub I was going to put my cement in and sprayed it with adhesive.  This gave me a measurements guide to create a design on.   I applied the adhesive because it prevented the tiles from moving if I bumped the table or the paper accidentally shifted.

Once I finished, I would mix and pour the concrete into the tub and then I would have to quickly transfer the design onto the concrete before it dried. 

Because I was working in the sun, (it didn't occur to me that this might speed up the drying process - duh!) the concrete started hardening faster than I could transfer the tiles, so I used a spray bottle to moisten the cement, which was very effective.

 This is my first garden tile (above) and below is my second one.

The concrete will dry overnight and then tomorrow I will use white grout to fill in the cracks between the tiles.  The smudged concrete on the glass stones and ceramic pieces will wipe off easily so they are colorful and shiny once more.  The white grout should contrast the color palette nicely making the garden tiles look nicely finished.

I will share photos of all of our tiles when they are completed.  We intend to do a few more over the weekend with the kids.  I have decided not to let the kids use the crushed plate pieces as they are sharp and leave your hands feeling raw after you have handled them.

Have a wonderful weekend!