How to Make A Spooky Halloween Tombstone For Your Yard

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By Aprilshowers
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It's Halloween and time for getting ready to decorate your yard. Wonder no more on how to make Halloween tombstones at home. You can make Halloween tombstones for your yard from plain or smooth Styrofoam. Get ready to learn how!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

knife
black marker
unsharpened pencil
fork
gray paint
sponge or rag
handsaw
hammer
one pair of 1/2 diameter dowels
foam:2inches or thicker and 18x24
paint brush with small point and one flat
1 2 inch to 3 inch flat distress

Step 1

Engraving. Take your sharp knife and cut out the shape for your tombstone from the Styrofoam. Take out your marker and use it to write something or make a design in the cut out. Next take a utility knife and start by slicing out the pen mark so the mark left by the marker is took out. To do this start on left or right side and slice at about a 45 degree angle then repeat for the opposite side. Take a fork and then trace it again to roughen it up a bit. The writing or design you made using the marker should be gone and in place of it is an engrave.
Step 2

Distressing the tombstone. This is done to make the tombstone look as if it is battered and old. If you use Styrofoam this part will be easier. Take your knife and slice out pieces. You can dig into it and scrape with a fork at the surface of the tombstone.
Step 3

Painting your tombstone. You can use two different shades of gray to make it more dramatic and realistic. Using the smaller point brush paint inside each valley (writing or design) and some places you broke away or scraped off. Take your flat brush and paint front, back, and sides of your tombstone. You can use a sponge to make it looked textured for an added effect.
Step 4

Take out your handsaw and dowels. Cut one end of both dowels to make it have a point. Now insert the pointed end of the dowels into the bottom of your tombstone.
Step 5

Find spot in the yard and mark it. Remove the dowels from your tombstone and hammer the sharp ends at least 1 inch into the ground. Last thing to do is to slide your tombstone over the dowels.

Comments

smart42 said

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on 10/31/2009 Very creative...Happy Halloween!

Triune said

on 10/31/2009 Wow, what a creative idea! I didn't know it was that easy to make your own halloween tombstone. If I had, I could have saved a little money! Great article, 5 *, and a recommend.