DIY: Concrete Mushroom

These sweet little mushrooms were designed by my dad.  He makes many pieces for garden decorations. 

 For our wedding backyard barbecue, my dad made around 100 mushrooms, which we used to decorate the garden, and had guests take one home with them.  We helped paint them along with our moms whose hands you can see on either edge of this photo below:

I'm looking forward to sharing this project!  What you will need: 

-concrete

-water

-plastic wrap

-small bowl filled with sand

-acrylic paint

Step 1: Add just enough water to the concrete to make the mixture stiff enough to stand up on it's own.  (The amount of concrete you use depends on how many mushrooms you are planning to make.)  Mold the mushroom stem on a piece of plastic wrap, as seen below.  

 Let the stem dry.  With our cool weather, I let it sit for a full day to dry completely.

Step 2:  Fill your bowl with damp sand and cover it with plastic wrap.

Step 3:  Using your hands, or a previously made mushroom, or any object that is mushroom-shaped, make an imprint in the sand on top of the plastic wrap.  This will be your mushroom mold.

Step 4:  Mix concrete that is softer than the concrete mixed for the stem.  Then fill the mushroom mold with this mixture.  As you can see below, I mixed too much water into the concrete and it is running over the edge of my mold.  It will be ok because I can file down or chip off unwanted concrete after the piece is dry.

Step 5:  Place the dry stem into the wet concrete as seen below.  If it seems like it won't stay in place, the trick is to simply hold it where you want it to be for 30 seconds or so.  You will see that it stays right there after that.  This also works if your mushroom-top concrete is rather thick and it seems like the stem won't go in.  Just hold it there with gentle pressure.  

Here is the mushroom after it has been given plenty of time to dry in the mold:

 Paint away!  If you like the shiny look, use a super glossy paint, or spray them with a varnish after you've painted them.  I like the vibrant colors of these mushrooms:  

Interested in winning a FREE mushroom?  Visit this post to enter the giveaway!  Good luck!