Tombstones

	For the big stone I took some scrap foam and stenciled the letters on, routed around the letters, then cut the letters off the foam. Just another way of doing it.
After routing out the letters they have sharp edges, which I don't care for. So I take an emery booard and file off the   edges to a more rounded appearance. It also helps giving the stone an older appearance. Here and there you can take off a bit  more making the letters look worn down from age.
	About the epitaph, most normally cut it out the same way you would do the name and date. I however have found an easier way to do this. I found at Wally World in the kids craft section these foam letters with self- adhesive backing. I just make a straight line, where I want the and stick them on. When I paint over them that seals them on. I checked for more at the big W and they now can be found in bags, instead of plastic containers. I have done about 15 epitaphs with this container and still have not run out.
Time to add emblishments! I just have to be different, most of the time, however Myra's stone cried out classic additions! I added the foam skull and hands, which I picked up at Dollar Tree. The cracks were added by using a soldering iron to melt through the foam. If you do this do it outside, the melting foam gives off fumes, Not only does it not smell all that great, I doubt there good for you.
	With Bubba's I had to be funny, just couldn't help it. Here I am adding beer bottles to the outside ring. I had to draw them freestyle as well as the stars on the flag part. The truck I bought at Dollar General for 3.00. I routed out a hole in the center of the stone, then I cut the truck in half at a slight angle and glued it in place and filled in any gaps around the truck with hotglue.
Ok, for the husband and wife stones, Will and May, I had a couple angels I wanted to add. So I routed out a shallow hole on each and glued them in. I trimmed up a small piece of foam and glued it below them, this made it look like they were standing on something.
	Another design element on Will and May's stones is the edging. I have never seen any post using this method, so here goes. I was watching "Ace Of Cakes", they were making pretty cool designs on there cakes and it hit me, why can't I do that on tombstones. Yes, nothing is off limits to me when it comes to enhancing my Halloween props! Using High Performance Spackling Paste I treated these stones like they were cakes. I went to Wally World and picked up all materials needed to do this. Tips and bags came to about 10.00. The Spackle can be  found at your favorite home improvement store. I know it is hard to see in the pic, but the first time I tested this on a monument I made, I posted the results in my Tips and Tricks section. Scroll down to Decorating.
For Hal's stone I added the four skulls and also routed out a shallow frame around the whole name and epitaph section. I then ran around the frame using the icing method. I made three candles to put in the holders at the top of the stone.
	This is a set of tools I made to assist me in painting and holding pvc frames. The dowels are used to hold my tombstones while I'm painting them. I remove the dowels when I'm working with a pvc frame. Just thought I throw this in.
Painting is fairly simple. It all depends on your own taste and how you want it to look. First step is to paint in all letters, numbers and cracks black. This one is getting a full black base coat, so I also painted the hands and skull.
	Next step will be you base coat. This one has a base coat of gray. When brushing it on make an attempt not to get the gray in the letters. If you do go back with some black and fix. This one I also wanted a copper medallion. I painted it with a copper craft paint, making sure not to get in the numbers.
This one I gave a base coat of blue, the next two coats where drybrushed on, which were black and gray. That about sums up most of the techiques I use. The finished tombstones are below.
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