This is on my todo list for this year. I want to get rid of all my store bought stones and custom make all new ones. I don't want people to come to my yard haunt and say ..."I got that, or I seen that at walmart I want to strive for all custom stuff.

Maybe breaking off more than I can chew but I got to try.

Thanks for the tips.

I just had an amazing idea......

Design a tombstone in corel or some cad / drawing program. The vinyl cut the stencil / relief design including letter and stick to the foam and then use any solvent in a spray form or solvent spray paint and spray away. It will etch the foam and leave the rest! VOILA instant stone!

I will try this soon and let everyone know......

thank you.

Yes, that does work. Herman Secret tried that and it worked great. Here's the link to the thread: Easy Tombstones

I somewhat followed his directions (I printed the design on inkjet sticky tag paper) and it worked really good. Later I did a latex stencil and then did the spray paint. Worked nicely as well. Here's the sticker way before I finished the tombstone:



Here's the latex stencil treatment:

__________________
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How-to's for all kinds of props: http://www.halloweenforum.com/album.php?u=20959
Videos at my YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Scaryladyvideos

I made a couple of stones from Herman Secrets tutorial, used sticker letters and painters tape to block off areas from the spray, along with a bat shape, and they turned out good, and so much easier that the old way I did it, burning out the letters!

The templates are BMP's

I have a PDF print driver. I can print the BMP to a PDF file. Would that help you. If you have Adobe Distiller, you can add a new printer. Add local printer with search turned off. Then add a new port. You should find an adobe port option. Once you add the printer you can set properties like where you want the file to be created and other stuff. Open the template file and print to the adobe print driver. Now you have a PDF file.

Spinman

Spinman

Can you elaborate on youe Latex stencil technique?

Thanks
Mike

Thank you, Terra! You're the queen. I glad that other people are getting some use out of my inept action Thanks for all the great sources.

VW--don't ditch your store boughts. Just move them to the rear or put them where vandalsim, theft or tragic acts of god is more likely. This protects your hand-mades but allows for a larger display. I'm planning to do this for 2009. It also saves the store boughts for other uses. You can cut them up to get appliques for hand-made projects. All it takes is a hacksaw blade or a hot wire cutter.

Voodoo Willy--here's that simple stone modification I did.


It started life as a coffin shaped marker. I used the hot wire cutter to remove everything except the cross and then repainted it. It's a good use of cheap easy to fine store bought tombstones. In 2009 these will go closest to the edge of the driveway and closest to the street. So I the wife runs one over trying to back my van down the hill or the local kids decide to test my paintball skills it won't be my custom tombstones taking the hit.

Sure I went ahead and made a tutorial:



There are many ways to make a stencil. I like the fabric method but I'm sure there are better ways out there.

To get a stencil ready, prepare the backing: Layout interfacing material onto an ironing board. Then following directions on Heat N' Bond, iron-on the 'glue'. In the second picture you can see the 'glue' now on the interfacing (shiny part). The third picture shows you what to look for at the fabric store.






I had found a pattern I liked on the web. I printed it as large as I could using the 'poster' option for printing. I taped the printed pages together and then made the pattern darker with a Sharpie. The first picture shows the backside of the pattern I darked. Put the inked side onto the glued interfacing. Following directions on the Heat N' Bond, iron it to the interfacing. You've now made your paper much stiffer and resilient to the painting you will do on it. In the second picture you will see the pattern showing through the interfacing.

Cut out the pattern.






I used pins to hold the stencil onto the tombstone. Then I dipped a rag into latex paint (any color) and ragged on the paint. You don't have to be perfect here. I did two coats. Let dry.

Now, take your tombstone outside and hit the pattern hard with spray paint. It will start to eat away at the foam and leave the latex painted foam generally alone. It does get in there a bit but I like that!

Now, paint the whole tombstone with two coats of gray Dry-lok. Let dry between coats.





After following my painting technique for making tombstones look ancient: Halloween Forum - Terra's Album: Tutorial: Ancient Tombstones you will see it really makes the effect pop.

__________________
.
How-to's for all kinds of props: http://www.halloweenforum.com/album.php?u=20959
Videos at my YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Scaryladyvideos