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Okay so this year I decided to improve my tombstones. They may not be as fancy as some of you other haunters here, but I'm pretty happy with how they are turning out. So far I have finished 8 of them and have at least 4 more to go.
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Being on a budget I used 4' x 8' x 1&1/2" white ridged foam board insulation instead of the pink or blue. I was able to get 6 roughly 24" x 30"- 34" stones out of one sheet. I cut the foam into smaller rectangles. I left the plastic film on both sides of the foam so I could trace out the shapes for my stones. Again leaving the plastic film on, I then used stencils and drew on my designs, letters and numbers. I then used a soldiering iron to engrave.
Once engraving was complete I removed the plastic film from both sides and then went to town aging them up. I used a serrated edged kitchen knife and scraped it along the edges of both front and back, carved out a few places to look like broken or chipped stone and then used the tip of the knife to form the cracks.
I then took some stickers (free wood from Home Depot, they are the pieces of wood that are under stacks of lumber that keep the stacks up off the floor and make it so fork lifts can lift up the stacks) and cut them aprox. 30" in length. I then sandwiched the stones between the stickers using 4" screws. This helps to keep the stones upright and from falling over. For extra protection from being stolen or blown away I drilled 1/2" holes on the up side of the stickers near the ends. I drilled a hole on one end of the front sticker and then on the opposite end of the back sticker. These holes allow me to stake them down using long spikes.
Once the stickers were added I painted the stones using a mixture of latex paint and mortar mix. I found some Oops paint for pretty cheap. I thinned down my paint with water, about a 1:1 ratio and then stirred in the mortar mix until I reached the consistency the paint was before I thinned it, maybe a tad thicker. I gave each stone 2-3 coats. Have to work fast as the mortar starts to cure pretty fast especially in the heat. This mixture gave the stones a more real stone look and feel, plus it adds some protection to the stones making it harder to ding and scratch them. Just a hint whatever paint color you use, that will be the color the stones turn out so unless you want say purple stones or don't want to have to re-paint them and lose the stone look and feel I'd use paint colors in your mixture more closer to the colors you want your final stones to be. I happened to find several shades of grey oops paint and I either used them straight or mixed several colors together.
After I painted them with the mortar and paint mixture, I then went and filled in the cracks, designs and the letters and numbers with black acrylic craft paint. I thinned down the paint with water when I painted the cracks so they wouldn't be as dark as the designs, letters and numbers. Then I used various shades of paint both latex and acrylic and dry brushed and or sponged on to give my stones a more depth and dimension.
All total I spent around $5 on each stone.
Anyways, again they may not be as elaborate or fancy as some stones I have seen on here, but I am overall very pleased with how they turned out. Quite honestly I think using the white foam insulation board helped give the stones an even more stone like look. The roughness of the foam after I scraped and scratched gave a more broken/chipped and jagged stone appearance.
Oh just an FYI here is something that I learned. I learned that you can glue styrofoam together with latex paint. I had one stone that was broken in half and I glued it back together using a thick amount of latex paint on both edges. I also added my raised pieces on one of my stones by gluing them on with latex paint. I gave the paint a day or so to completely dry. Using latex paint was much cheaper than Gorilla Glue or the tube of liquid nails or foamboard adhesive especially when you can get Oops paint. The bond is pretty strong too. I'm going to test using latex paint to bond styrofoam to wood next and see how that works.
Being on a budget I used 4' x 8' x 1&1/2" white ridged foam board insulation instead of the pink or blue. I was able to get 6 roughly 24" x 30"- 34" stones out of one sheet. I cut the foam into smaller rectangles. I left the plastic film on both sides of the foam so I could trace out the shapes for my stones. Again leaving the plastic film on, I then used stencils and drew on my designs, letters and numbers. I then used a soldiering iron to engrave.
Once engraving was complete I removed the plastic film from both sides and then went to town aging them up. I used a serrated edged kitchen knife and scraped it along the edges of both front and back, carved out a few places to look like broken or chipped stone and then used the tip of the knife to form the cracks.
I then took some stickers (free wood from Home Depot, they are the pieces of wood that are under stacks of lumber that keep the stacks up off the floor and make it so fork lifts can lift up the stacks) and cut them aprox. 30" in length. I then sandwiched the stones between the stickers using 4" screws. This helps to keep the stones upright and from falling over. For extra protection from being stolen or blown away I drilled 1/2" holes on the up side of the stickers near the ends. I drilled a hole on one end of the front sticker and then on the opposite end of the back sticker. These holes allow me to stake them down using long spikes.
Once the stickers were added I painted the stones using a mixture of latex paint and mortar mix. I found some Oops paint for pretty cheap. I thinned down my paint with water, about a 1:1 ratio and then stirred in the mortar mix until I reached the consistency the paint was before I thinned it, maybe a tad thicker. I gave each stone 2-3 coats. Have to work fast as the mortar starts to cure pretty fast especially in the heat. This mixture gave the stones a more real stone look and feel, plus it adds some protection to the stones making it harder to ding and scratch them. Just a hint whatever paint color you use, that will be the color the stones turn out so unless you want say purple stones or don't want to have to re-paint them and lose the stone look and feel I'd use paint colors in your mixture more closer to the colors you want your final stones to be. I happened to find several shades of grey oops paint and I either used them straight or mixed several colors together.
After I painted them with the mortar and paint mixture, I then went and filled in the cracks, designs and the letters and numbers with black acrylic craft paint. I thinned down the paint with water when I painted the cracks so they wouldn't be as dark as the designs, letters and numbers. Then I used various shades of paint both latex and acrylic and dry brushed and or sponged on to give my stones a more depth and dimension.
All total I spent around $5 on each stone.
Anyways, again they may not be as elaborate or fancy as some stones I have seen on here, but I am overall very pleased with how they turned out. Quite honestly I think using the white foam insulation board helped give the stones an even more stone like look. The roughness of the foam after I scraped and scratched gave a more broken/chipped and jagged stone appearance.
Oh just an FYI here is something that I learned. I learned that you can glue styrofoam together with latex paint. I had one stone that was broken in half and I glued it back together using a thick amount of latex paint on both edges. I also added my raised pieces on one of my stones by gluing them on with latex paint. I gave the paint a day or so to completely dry. Using latex paint was much cheaper than Gorilla Glue or the tube of liquid nails or foamboard adhesive especially when you can get Oops paint. The bond is pretty strong too. I'm going to test using latex paint to bond styrofoam to wood next and see how that works.
