Franki Stein

Well...........it's done. I finally had time to finish the Elly Kedward stone. My last steps were to add some lichen and some moss. I found this site:

http://www.grimvisions.com/how-to/cr...n-a-prop-piece

Which features a method for making amazing looking lichens using paint & craft sand. I decided to try it out. And all I can say is that I really need to master the 'less is more' mindset. I was having a lot of fun making the lichens and I really liked the way they looked.... and then I reached -and completely trampled over the line of too much. Next time, I'll only do a few. I will ignore that voice in the back of my head that says 'cover every square inch with lichen! c'mon! you know you want to!'

Anyway, after the lichens were dry, I glued on some moss. Luckily for me this stuff is growing like wildfire all over my back yard patio. So all I did was very carefully scrape some of it off the patio stones. It's extremely fragile, and most pieces ended up breaking apart, but I was able to get some good ones. Then I let them dry for a few days, and again, very carefully shook the dirt out of them. It's an easy process and worth every penny- oh that's right, it's free! Can't beat that!

I should mention, again, that I cannot seem to grasp the concept of 'less is more'. This held true with my moss application. Hubby said I over did it, he's so nice- isn't he?

Anyway, it's finished. I put the stone outside and added some of last years leaves (Yep, I still have leaves from last year. I'm not big on yard work. Hey- we got most of them! If you saw my leaf piles in the fall, you'd understand! If a kid jumped in them, they'd likely never be seen again!)

So, here it is:



My first 'post awakening' project is done. And best of all, it didn't break the bank:

Mirror- $5.99
Foam- had it left over so no extra cost
Base- no cost (had wood laying around)
Drylok- $28 for a can, I probably only used about 1/8 of the can, or $3.50
Spray paint- had some laying around
Liquid Nails- $2.27
White Paint- $9.54 for can, probably only used about 1/8 of this can too, or $1.19
4 jars of sample paints- $9.50, used maybe $1.00 worth (if that)
Craft sand- $2.49 (used at the most 1/4 of the container, or .62)
Cheap Paint brushes- $1.29 ea, used 4- $5.16 (in hindsight I could have used only 2)
Spackling compound- $4.97 maybe used $1.00 of this.

So total cost of materials used for this project: $20.73

Making a realistic (if over-lichened & over-mossed) tombstone that will make all my other tombstones jealous= priceless!