Thread: comment about tombstones sold today

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I don't know what company(or companies) makes these
thin tombstones sold today, the ones that come with the plastic
or in some cases, skinny metal t shaped stakes to stick in the ground, here's my experience with them so far
1: the plastic stakes won't stick in the ground, nine times
out of ten they break

2 : the metal ones MIGHT not break, but they push thru
the tombstones because they are made TOO thin

3: IF you get the stake thru without it breaking OR pushing
thru the other side, then you have to worry about the wind
blowing them over, those little stakes don't give much
support.

I use to have some thicker tombstones, they were thick
enought I'd use a standard tent stake to put them up, I
never had one that the stake pushed thru or when I
put them up, I NEVER had to worry about the wind blowing
them over. I sometimes REALLY wonder if these companies
that sell halloween stuff ever ACTUALLY "field" test their
products, if they did they might discover those plasic stakes
aren't worth a dang and the tombstones are WAYYYYY too
thin. The largest majority of those tombstones I've seen
lately aren't EVEN an inch thick, that doesn't give very
much room for error, if that stake doesn't push thru
EXACTUALLY in a straight line, you'll have a punch thru

I just get my tombstones from The Dollar Tree and Walgreens but the stakes they have suck! They are cheap and flimsy. The other problem is the tombstones are thick nothing else will work to hold them down. I'm going to start making my own with cement next year.

You should check out some of the tutorials on making your own out of foam...my dad and I made our own this year. They were fun to make and you can really get creative with them.

Here's an example of one that we worked on. Still have to put the finishing coats of paint on it...but you can see where it's going.

1 1/2" foam boards put together = 3" thick tombstones

The store bought ones also wash off in rain...grrr!

I've ACTUALLY made my own before, I used the white foam
pieces they sold at walmart in the arts and craft department,
I'd write whatever I wanted to say on them with a black marker
then went over that with a wood burner, it made it look like
the letters were carved. They sell a product in the paint department called fleckstone, it's used to give things a granite
like surface, it's mostly used for like flower pots and things but
there's one that's a light grey color and it makes some sweet
looking tombstones, only reason I'm using the store bought
ones this year is last January I lost all my decorations(nine years
worth) in a house fire, what didn't get burnt in the fire the crooks
the landlord hired to gut the house ended up stealing before I could get them out so last year I did nothing but start buying
stuff to replace what I could and get ready for this year, I've
replaced major things like lifesize Michael Myers and Jason,
lighted halloween arch, fountain of blood, fogging witch's pot,
and fogging pumpkin and some of the other things people
associated my yard with(thank god for ebay) and I put
tombstones on the secondary list for now, alot of my props were
hand made so it's taken time to replace/rebuild the major things
but I'm getting there slowly.