How to make a head stone or gravestone rubbing for your scrap book

Headstone or Grave Stone rubbings can be a unique addition to a scrap book or your family history. Here is how to do it.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Crayons or artists charcoal
• Light colored paper (tracing paper or printer paper work well)
• Painters tape

1. Before you begin, please note that in some cemetery's this practice is banned. Its usually the older colonial cemeteries but it is important to call ahead to make sure it is allowed where you are planning to visit.
   
   The reason for the ban is that the tombstones are too old and even a gentle breeze tends to cause them to break away.
   
   After selecting the head stone you wish to rub gently tape your paper over the head stone using your painters tape.

2. If you are using a crayon remove the outside wrapper and lay your crayon on its side. If you are using charcoal just lay it on its side.
   
   Starting at the top of your paper gently rub your crayon over the headstone following all the way to the edges of your paper. Work your way down to the bottom of your piece of paper.

3. When you have finished you may wish to make a note of where you did your rubbing and the date you did it. You also may wish to take a digital picture of your rubbing to add to your scrap book.

Tips & Warnings

• When using chalk or charcoal use a fixative such as hair spray to set your rubbing. After the fixative dries you can set your picture into a plastic sleeve to help protect it even further.
• Be careful of making rubbings on older head stones. Often they are deteriorating and even touching them can damage them further. For this reason some cemeteries will not allow rubbings. Always check with the cemetery first to make sure it is okay.
• Always check the cemeteries hours prior to going to make your rubbing. Some are only open during certain hours and during autumn and winter months these hours may even be shorter.

[evgnspaces]

on 5/22/2009 Nice added memory of a gravestone from a cemetery visit

[iamageniuster]

on 10/20/2008 Great tips. Thanks for sharing. 5 stars!