The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

D-I-Y Hypertufa Flagstone Project Questions

I received an email from a sweet lady named P.J. asking me about how doable a “large” DIY hypertufa flagstone project might be and I think lots of you can benefit from her questions and my answers. So here goes:

Hi Claudia,

I love your website and blog and I have been reading all your info about hypertufa but I have a few questions. I want to make a patio in my yard and I would like to use the flagstone or slate mold. I am a widow and I will be doing this myself.

I guess my question is can I do it myself? I know the regular stones are too heavy for me to lift by myself and thought that the hypertufa stones would be lighter. I live down in Southern Florida where we do not usually get any freezing so I don’t think that I have to worry about the cracking of the stone. How long will they last with people walking over them?

Would your e-book on hypertufa address making the patio stones? I love the look of slate or flagstones and I will be doing the work myself. I am quite handy at repairing & fixing things so I know I could do it if it will not be too heavy.

Thank you,
P.J.

My reply:

Hi P.J.:
Thank you for contacting me and for the kind compliment about my site.

To answer your questions, yes I am sure you can tackle a project making hypertufa flagstones if you are at least a mildly active person.

There isn’t anything that is going to be horribly difficult in the process, but I guess the biggest thing to consider is the weight of the bags of Portland cement and sand you’ll be having to take out of your vehicle and transport to your working area.

The bags are normally between 40lbs – 80lbs. Can you wrestle 80lbs of dead weight?? (It’s not as easy for me as it used to be, I must admit.)

Next, though you won’t have the need to mix up huge batches at one time – as I am going to guess you’ll only have a few molds that can be used at a time – be aware that the mixing up and blending can put a strain on one’s back. Lots of crafters will mix up everything in a wheel barrow to keep from having to bend way down to mix up everything. Or many folks rent a small concrete mixer – it all depends upon how many flagstones you’re going to have to make, to determine if the cost of the mixer rental is worth it.

Yes, the ‘tufa stones will be lighter, and over time the peat moss will decompose leaving a more natural looking stone – that is unless you want super smooth stones (with minimal texture) like real slate. Then I’d use a pure concrete recipe. No peat moss (which means you can’t call the recipe a hypertufa recipe).

As I teach on my website (and in my eBook) … IF the recipe ratios are correct; IF the mixing and application method is correct; and IF you allow the object to cure properly, then you ought to have stones that will last almost indefinitely. But I always advise that you do some test runs – and I think especially so for this project. Make a small batch; record the exact ratios; the curing time, etc. If you have success (or failure) with your test run, then you know you are either good to go with your project … or if you’ve had a failure … then it’s back to the drawing board!

I caution you to NOT attempt this project without first getting a real hands-on feel of what working with concrete and such is like. It can be a temperamental animal … but not so bad because thousands of people are successful all the time once they get the hang of ingredient ratios and proper curing methods. After all, hypertufa making is NOT rocket science!

Yes … my Hypertufa How-To eBook does go into much more depth on the subject of hypertufa, however I can tell you that for the project you are wanting to do, you’ll find everything you need to know for free on my site. (How is that for being honest and not trying to sell you my eBook?)

Your main decision is what recipe to use. I would suggest one that includes a bonding agent which will help add more strength. I don’t suggest using reinforcing fibers in your recipe for a variety of reasons – mostly to make the project easier for you. However … even one of the basic hypertufa recipes most likely will do fine, too. But make a test batch first!

To review all the hypertufa pages on my site, you can easily see all the pages listed under the “Hypertufa” sub-heading on my website’s directory page. Check out the different recipes and projects – I do have one for flagstones – and I know you’ll find one that will fill the bill for you.

Oh … I had another crafter who wanted to tackle a “make homemade flagstones for the patio” project tell me she bought nice flagstone molds on eBay. I think the the cost was around $100, but a deal when you consider how much you’ll save in the long run if you DIY and of course because the molds are reusable.

Does this information help? I hope so. Keep me posted. Good luck with your hypertufa flagstone project!

Claudia

I’m No Super Artsy Crafter -
Here’s the Mailbox Decoration I Made From Scratch

I thought I’d share information on making homemade mailbox decorations for the Holidays, because often times we either don’t have the time to put up all the outdoor decorations we’ve amassed over the years, or we really just don’t have the enthusiasm or physical ability we used to, to haul out ladders and all the strings of lights, and tackle that whole “decorate the house” project!

I pretty much fit all the above! But, I don’t want my house to look totally ignored over the Holidays either and the mailbox is a nice spot to add some festivity.

I thought you might like to see how I decorate mine, and how I went about it. I am sure you’ll be able to either try to duplicate what I’ve done, or spin off from the main concept and make a creative masterpiece all your own.

Steps to Make This DIY Christmas Decoration

Here’s a photo of the completed decoration adorning my mailbox. Not too shabby, eh?

The basic components are:

• Wire ribbon (ribbon that has very thin   wire running down both edges);

• Artificial evergreen garland – it’s the kind   made on a very stiff bendable wire;

• Plastic (don’t use glass!) Christmas   ornaments;

• A rope of shiny metallic-type green and   red fringe; and

• I can’t forget to mention I used my hot   glue gun and a fair number of glue sticks   (sorry, I didn’t count).

Construction basics:

I determined the length of evergreen garland I needed to make each section that would go on either side of the mailbox post.

What is helping to hold the entire decoration onto the mailbox post is a loop of garland at the top of one of the sections. I placed this over the top of the section of post that sticks out above my mailbox. Your post may not be constructed the same. Use your ingenuity, like I did!

The second section is basically one long straight piece of evergreen garland, which I attached by bending over a few of the evergreen “sprigs” to latch onto other sprigs from the top garland loop. The wires in the garland are pretty flexible, but stiff enough to hold any twisting and attaching you need to do.

I wrapped the red and green tinsel garland around all the evergreen pieces, making sure to snug it in between the springs.

I then decided where I wanted to place the ornaments and how many would be needed. I decided I wanted three ornaments grouped together with some space in between each grouping. **REMEMBER: odd numbers of anything you’re grouping together normally always looks better than items grouped in even numbers!

I hot glued the ornaments onto the garland. Let me warn you … be generous with the glue – don’t skimp. Otherwise, you might find that your ornaments fall off as the weather gets colder. I learned this the first year after I made this. I had to reglue many of the ornaments. So the next year, I yanked on each ornament, and if it stayed stuck, fine! If it came off, I used a very generous amount of glue and those ornaments have stayed stuck now for many years.

Another word of caution: make sure you put something like cardboard or a few layers of newspaper under the garland when you’re gluing as invariably the hot glue will ooze down through openings between the springs. Protect your work surface from a gluey mess.

I made the bow from scratch, and attached it to the mailbox post after I had secured the entire decoration onto the post.

With frugality in mind, I happened to have a spool of this wired ribbon in my supply box. I sometimes buy up things at the end of the season (or any other time of year I see deals I can’t pass up) – love those after Christmas 50% off sales! I bought up all sorts of different colors one year, as wired ribbon can get expensive and the prices were more than 50% off. So, that’s why this particular ribbon was used … I had it on hand and it is rather festive in coloration.

In case you’re not familiar with wired ribbon, it is sold on a spool. Here’s the empty spool – I used the entire spool to make the bow – all 30 feet of ribbon!

Here’s a close-up of my DIY Christmas decoration. I thought maybe a close-up might be helpful to those of you who are like me and not necessarily whiz kids at making something like this.

That’s about it for my basic how-tos. You still have a couple of weeks to enjoy some outside decorations. It’s not too late! I’ll bet you can rummage through your box(es) of decorations and come up with some items that if put together with a little creativity can dress up your mailbox for the Holidays.

My DIY Christmas decoration has been used on my mailbox for about 4 years now and it still looks good and is holding together extremly well. Back up into the attic it will go in early January, waiting to come back out the first of December, once again.

To see more ideas for homemade DIY Christmas decorations, make sure to read my post: Decorate Your Mailbox for the Holidays.

DIY Christmas Decorations to Add Some Holiday Cheer to Your Lonely Mailbox

I decorate my mailbox each year for the Holiday season, one reason being because I don’t go semi-wild stringing lights all over my house anymore. (I used to … but now I just don’t care to deal with the heavy ladder and everything else involved.) But, so as not to have a home that doesn’t exude some sort of Holiday cheer, these past few years I have made it a point to decorate my mailbox with garland and lights and I also have always placed garland with lights around the entire opening of my front door.

You can see the photos and my how-to steps here: My Homemade Mailbox Christmas Decoration.

So … I thought perhaps some of you might appreciate some DIY Christmas decoration ideas for your mailbox. It’s really quite easy and inexpensive to do. You needn’t buy the decorations … even a few evergreen branches and a nice red bow can lend a festive touch to that poor lonely mailbox in front of your house. Easy and frugal is my whole idea for this blog post today.

Also, if you are like me, you’ve probably amassed a lot of Christmas decorations that you don’t even use anymore. Dig through those boxes and I’ll bet you will come up with a few things that, when put together, will produce a fine decoration that you’ll be proud to place on your mailbox during the holiday season.

That’s what I did a few years ago … I have some artificial evergreen garland and 2 boxes of round gold plastic ornaments that I made a very nice long swag-sort-of-decoration for.

Okie-Dokie … Get Out Your Hot Glue Gun …
Here Are Some Nice DIY Ideas Even the Kids Can Help Make

Idea #1: A wreath around your mailbox is pretty darn easy. You might have a small one sitting in your decoration box. Or, you could use a piece of long real or artificial evergreen garland, and then loop it around at least twice to make a wreath. Add a bow and/or a few ornaments.

Just make sure the interior opening of the wreath is wide enough to fit around the exterior of your mailbox if it’s preformed or you’re making the wreath. Otherwise you could just wrap it a few times or more around the mailbox. Make sure it’s bushy enough to look like you did want it to be a wreath, and not a few strands of garland wrapped towards the back of the mailbox.

Idea #2: Here’s a pretty easy idea … make a nice large swag from real or artificial evergreen boughs, slip in some berries, pine cones or small ornaments, maybe add a bow and there you have it, another very attractive DIY idea.

Idea #3: Here’s another pretty and easy to make DIY Christmas decoration … a variation of a swag for the top of the mailbox.

Idea #4: Evergreen boughs can be tied at the top the the bunch and attached to the post under your mailbox. This idea should be easier to attach than swags perched on top of the mailbox.

Idea #5: If you’re not able to get your hands on any real or artificial greenery, or perhaps just not wanting to decorate your mailbox that way … how about using Christmas lights? Just wind them ’round and ’round until you’ve got enough of them to make a nice visual presentation.

**Caution … if you have to use an extension cord to get power out to your mailbox (I do because mine is out on the street curb) make SURE you use an extension cord meant for outdoor use.

I will assume that if you plug that extension cord into an outdoor socket, that the socket is a GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter). Nowadays in the USA and Canada it is a building code for every electrical plug in a home, whether inside or out, to be a GFI socket.

Last but not least … Idea #6: I just had to post this photo … kinda sad looking, isn’t it? (Note that it appears half of the lights aren’t even lit!)

The first thing that entered my mind when I saw this photo was “Gee, why did they even bother?” I’m sorry, but it is just not attractive and I think it would have been better for these people to not have bothered. I’m not meaning to be cruel, but really!

What I’m merely trying, and hoping, to convey in the photo is what NOT to do with a string of lights.

Well, there you have it, some easy DIY Christmas decoration ideas (and one “don’t do this” idea) to help give you some inspiration, especially if you need to do a last-minute Holiday spruce-up to the outside of your house. Dressing up youre mailbox will help give a nice impression and show your Holiday spirit, don’t you think?

The Temperatures are Dropping to Freezing for Many of Us
Get Your Terra Cotta Containers Protected

Since so many of us live in parts of the USA and elsewhere in the world where the temperatures are really starting to dip low, I thought I’d provide some important winterizing tips for terra cotta (also called clay) pots.

Here’s a real example showing exactly what kind of damage repeated freeze/thaw conditions can do. This photo was taken in the springtime in my very own garden a couple years ago. This cracked mess was one of my cheaper pots, which I left partially sunk into the soil, and I’d let it sit out all winter. I assumed that it would survive … but it didn’t.

Freezing and then thawing numerous times throughout the winter months is the culprit of the damage you see. Terra cotta and clay act as a wick – meaning water is absorbed into the clay from the soil, or rain, or snow – which causes cracking most times when the temps drop down below freezing. Then … temps rise enough to allow the frozen water to thaw, and this starts to cause stress to the terra cotta/clay material. And if this keeps happening throughout the winter, which it likely will, come springtime you just might find a cracked, or crumbled mess.

That is unless you’ve spent big bucks on high-high quality freeze-resistant Italian terra cotta pottery from vendors such as Seibert & Rice. But chances are you’re probably more like me, meaning you have some very nice quality clay pots, but you also purchase pots at discount stores. And as is said … we do get what we pay for! And in the case of most of the terra cotta and clay pots available on the market, that means they are not meant to be left out during the winter months.

To learn more about winterizing your containers and pots, please read my informative article Winter Container Garden tips.