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I was thinking about buying one to make stencils for the wording on the foam tombstones, paint on the wording them dremel out the words. I have not found a good way to get tombstones lines up and lettered using other methods. I have heard you can get a laser printer to print backward then iron it onto the foam tombstone but don't have a laser printer to see how that works. Has anyone done either?
 

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I have an old as dirt HP laserjet 4+ that I did try out the reverse lettering and iron it on the blue foam.

It worked well enough, but it’s a very fine balance between transferring ink, getting the paper stuck to the foam and melting the foam!

Don’t think I took pics of the process, but I’ll see if I have pics of the finished tombstone.


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Just realized that I posted 2 years ago on this thread that I had been looking or thinking about cricut for a while. Just got one this year! I can’t wait to use it for Halloween. I know I’ll be doing some tshirts. We have a group that goes to a haunted corn maze every year and we usually do stencil painted shirts. This year 4 of us have a cricut so I feel sure that’s the way we will go this year. Probably random decor Also.
 

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I just bought a Cricut recently too, the Maker! I haven't tried vinyl or shirts yet, but I bought it because it cuts through craft foam that I use a lot for cosplay armor and things like that. Having the machine cut 300 scales for elven armor is a lot faster and neater than doing it by hand, so that finally sold me on it! I do love trachcanman's suggestion of using it to make a stencil for carving out tombstone decor and things like that.
 

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Oh, I one for Christmas and I still haven't started to use it. These are all great ideas. Are you all finding the Cricut easy to use?
not sure about easy to use but once I figured out how it worked I find the stencils make lettering on tombstones easier to do. I print out the whole thing, cut it into individual lines then peel off the individual letters, apply transfer tape to the front, peel it off the backing and attempt to stick it to the painted foam. I am working on tombstones I made last year but didn't have time to write anything on them. I find the expensive permanent vinyl works better than stencil vinyl because it stays on better. I remove the letters, press the vinyl strip down where I want it, outline the letter in black permanent marker if I plan to router out the foam, or I decided in most cases just use the permanent marker to fill in the letter. Once I peel off the vinyl it looks good, if I plan on routering the letters the vinyl stays on till after I router and paint the letters. I am still trying to figure out how the machine works best, and find I have to watch the length of the print to make sure it doesn't end up wider than the tombstone. I got a maker 3 so I can print up to 24 inches wide by 12 inches high, so unless I want to break the message down to two parts my letters run between 1.5 and almost 2.0 inches high. If you plan on doing a lot of lettering I think the cricut is a good way to do it. I have no idea how to do anything else on the machine but know it does a lot of different things I will probably never use.
the vinyl and transfer tape can get expensive and you have to have a cutting mat and some tools to use the stencils. you can use the transfer tape over and over, I cut one strip wide and long enough to use on each line of what ever I have printed out and the tape lasts thru the tombstone where I am normally transferring three to five lines.
 
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