How to Make a Concrete Cross

Concrete crosses may decorate memorial sites, gravesites or simply act as a yard decoration and show of faith. Whatever your needs, commercial concrete crosses can be far outside your budget. However, dry concrete costs much less, and making your own concrete cross allows you to decorate it as you please. Though this means you have to mix the cement yourself, small concrete projects like this don’t take up more than a day or two and are straightforward enough for even novices to understand.

Large plastic tub

Dry cement

Hoe

Cooking spray

Paper towels

Plastic cross mold

Scrap wood

Popsicle sticks

Old carpeting

Fill your plastic tub about half full of dry cement. Pour in a little water at a time and mix it into the cement with a hoe. Add enough warm water to make a paste the consistency of very thick oatmeal or cookie batter.

Spray the inside of a cross mold with cooking spray. Rub the inside of the mold with paper towels to distribute the spray evenly and soak up the excess. The inside of the mold should be shiny and greasy looking, but there shouldn’t be any puddles of cooking spray.

Pour your concrete into the mold. Pat down the top of the concrete with a piece of scrap wood. You can also scrape away excess concrete with the flat edge of the wood.

Allow the concrete to harden for about half the recommended time. Use popsicle sticks to scrape a design into the surface of the concrete. This may be Celtic knots, a geometric design, names or even a verse of poetry. Personalize the cross as you see fit.

Allow the cross to harden completely. Turn the mold over onto a padded surface, like grass or old carpeting, and pull up on the edges of the mold. The cross should pop free.

For a sparkling cross, add mosaic pieces, bits of glass, beads, glass nuggets and other embeds to the cross right after pouring. If you wait until the cross is half-dry, the pieces won’t sink enough to stay in the concrete.