Concrete Honey Bear

Uh oh. I got my hands on some concrete and sorta maybe went crazy and am making ALL the things concrete. CAN. NOT. STOP. Not all of my projects have been successful, but I’m in love with the pieces that worked. Today I’m sharing my Concrete Honey Bear. He’s so cute.

Let’s jump right into it. This is how I made him:

Supplies:

– Roughly 3 cups of Quikrete 5000 Concrete

– 1 Honey Bear bottle

– One 3/4 inch wide by 12 inch high piece of PVC pipe

– Water

– Duct Tape

– Shovel/stick to mix the concrete.

– Large container to mix concrete (we used two 5 gallon buckets)

– Pliers, wire cutters, and blade to peel off plastic

Directions: 

– Prep your boney bear bottle. Clean it.

– This part is sort of optional: cut the top off the bottle. I did this so I could fit the PVC pipe into the bear.

– Use duct tape to seal off one end of your PVC pipe piece.

– It’s time to pour your concrete! Safety note: wear gloves/eye protection/dust filter mask for this process. I also suggest doing this process with a friend, makes it so much easier (also, the concrete bag is 80 pounds and I couldn’t even move, ha, my husband helped with that). Mix your concrete together with water. I’m not positive how much water I used, but slowly add water until the mixture is slushy. Add more concrete if it get’s too watery. If you’ve never mixed concrete before, I really recommend watching this video by Quikrete.

– Pour the prepped concrete into the bear.

– Push the PVC pipe (with the duct tape portion as the base) into the concrete bear. You’ll have a bit of concrete pour out. Tap the base of the bear on the ground to get air bubble out. If the pipe starts to float to the top, tape it down. Clean up the top of the bear (it’s a bit messy).

– Optional: I chose to remove the PVC pipe after the concrete had set for about 45 minutes. I’m not sure if I’d do this again, but I wanted it out. You can keep it in, if you’d like. I’m 99% sure it will be really hard to remove once the concrete is dry.

– 30 to 45 minutes after the pour, smooth out the top of the bear’s head.

– Let Honey Bear dry for 2 + days. I took this bear out after 24 hours, and he still had a few lose pieces on the back. Needed more time. Still looks cute!

– Onto the pain in the buns portion of this DIY: Take the plastic off your concrete honey bear. I admit this killed me. Lots of swearing, etc. BUT, I did it. Using pliers, a wire cutter, and a blade. Tips: Use the blade to cut some lines on the back. Use the wire cutters to snip little pieces to get a portion of the plastic to start peeling. Use the pliers to twist off (I’m talking actually twisting the pliers) to pull off the plastic. I worked on creating one big line on the back. I was able to pull it off… after a bit of work.

– You’re done! It’s now a cute kitschy pencil holder…. or bud vase? I think I’ll be putting a little succulent in it and putting him outside. Yes, that’s cute.

ALSO, new blog post on Better Homes and Gardens. Can you guess what it’s about? Yeah. Concrete. You gotta check out my Outdoor Concrete Stool/Table.

– Chelsey