How to Pour Ornamental Concrete

Choose your molds. You can buy commercial molds at a home improvement store or re-purpose foil tins or baking trays into molds. If you have a unique shape in mind or want a variety of shapes and sizes, form your own molds with polyurethane sheeting.

Designate a workspace for pouring the ornamental concrete. You'll need a level surface and a cover if you're outdoors to shield the wet concrete from natural elements.

Apply a light coat of mold release agent inside of each mold with a cloth or sponge. Wipe off any drips as you go to prevent the agent from pooling on the bottom of the mold, which will create a pit in your poured concrete.

Arrange any embellishments that you want to add at the bottom of the mold. Customize a child's garden with the letters of her initials, or let children decorate a mold themselves with colorful rubber balls and painted sticks. Once the concrete hardens, the embellishments will show on the surface of the stone.

Mix concrete in a bucket with concrete mix and water. The mixture should be thick like brownie batter, not soupy.

Use a scooper to fill half of your first mold with concrete. Shift the mold around and knock it on the bottom of the surface so all of the corners and crevices of the mold are filled. Fill the rest of the mold and tamp it again on the surface to push out air pockets. Run a trowel over the top to smooth the surface.

Continue to scoop the concrete until all of the molds are filled. Wait two days for the concrete to set in the molds.

Turn the mold over on the surface and catch it in your hand when the block slides out. If the block doesn't slide out, gently tap the middle of the back of the mold and lift the upside mold once the concrete is released.