Handmade Holiday Gift: DIY Concrete Kit

We are participating in a Handmade Holiday Gift Series with fellow bloggers. As usual, when faced with a challenge, we each had our own ideas of what to do. We barely considered Vicki's idea because Steph's idea was perfect!
Our gift idea is a take off of all those Pinterest worthy "mix in a mason jar" ideas. We decided instead of a food mix we'd make up a DIY concrete kit in a bag!
We have enjoyed learning how to use concrete this year, but realized there is not an easy, simple way to experience using concrete without having to buy a huge bag of concrete. Putting together a concrete kit, with everything your gift recipient will need to make three candleholders, allows you to give the gift of creativity to all your DIY friends.
Love this idea but don't have time to put the kit together? We have you covered! Head to our website where we have pre-made a limit number of kits.
Watch the video
Materials:


- RapidSet Cement All--we chose RapidSet because it sets up within an hour


- Ziplock sandwich bags--any high quality bags will do


- Small storage cups with lids--we used Betty Crocker brand


- Tea Lights--ours are from Target


- Plastic gloves


- Face mask


- Paper bag for concrete


- Purchased or handmade bag for all the contents


- Instructions for recipient
Tools you need to put together kit:


- Container for cement


- 2/3 cup measuring cup


- Straight edge--we used a paint stick


- Plastic bags from above


- Permanent marker--we used a Inkzall from Milwaukee


- 1/2 Tablespoon measuring spoon


- Plastic Cups from above


- Water
Before starting, put on your SAFETY gear--mask and gloves. Work in a open garage or outside. Pour cement into the bowl for easy measuring. Do this outside as this kicks up a lot of dust.
Each kit will contain three plastic bags of pre-measured concrete. Fill the 2/3 cup measuring cup with concrete, tamp it into the cup with the paint stick, then level it off (like you'd do with flour). Repeat until you have three bags of concrete.
Lay the filled bags away from you and gentle push out the air and seal the bag. Try to keep the cement away from the "zipper" area as it will impede sealing correctly.
This can also be an optional step, but again, by doing this, your recipient has one less thing he/she has to do. You will be marking the water level for the amount of water needed to be added to one bag of concrete. Measure 2 1/2 tablespoons of water into one of the plastic cups. We used a 1/2 tablespoon measuring spoon.
Using the marking pen, draw a line even with the top of the water level. Be sure to dry out the cups before assembling your kit.
Now put it all together- each kit gets:


- 3 bags of cement, optionally placed into a brown bag


- 3 plastic cups and lids


- 3 tea light


- 1 face mask


- 1 set of gloves


- Instructions (to download please visit our website)
Mother Daughter Projects
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  3 questions
  • Lynn turner Lynn turner on Dec 26, 2016
    Can you add color?
  • Barb Dauber Barb Dauber on Jan 07, 2017
    So, Do you insert the tea light while the cement is still wet? Or do you center it at the bottom of the mold before pouring the concrete into the mold?
  • Chandra Chandra on Jan 14, 2017
    When the tea lights burnout can u replace them?
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