Makeshift Tombstone Painting Station

You come up with the most fun things when your hubby has every available inch of the garage taken up with huge a$$ props….  You end up in the driveway one day, making an assembly line for painting and aging tombstones…. and find a way that you will use whether there’s space in the garage or not!  (Yes, I did notice that I had been kicked out of the MAN CAVE, but come to find out, it was ok!)

I didn't get a pic of my “table” set up, but it went something like this…

Take one of these

and move the two boards together to sandwich 2 pieces of rebar between them.  This is where you will put the tombstones (with embedded PVC, right?) to stand upright to paint.

Then pull up your city trash can, and make a white trash (haha) painters bench…. it even has a girlie little towel rack built right in!  LOL

I couldn't have built anything better if I had planned it.

You can see one on the workbench in the shot below….

It gets you up close and personal with your stones, at eye level, from all directions, and lets you allow it to dry for a few minutes before moving it.

Perfect!

I make the stupidest mistakes when I write…

I don’t know how “carpet latex” got into my head, and therefore into my last post – but it was not, I assure you, carpet latex that I mixed with sand.  It was this….

 

Hardwood floor wood filler – came in a big bucket for a little bit of money, and with about 1 part of this stuff to about 3 parts sand made a perfect texture.  Dried overnight to an amazing finish that will not break or chip off.

Ugh, getting that email from Jaybo on my phone… titled, “Err, your last post???”  Felt like I got caught by the teacher again.

My apologies.  Not like any of you rushed out for carpet latex… YOU know better.  One of these days I will write a post at a decent hour, and clear my mind of the last 30 minutes of browsing blogs, Haunt and Halloween Forum and Twisted Nightmares…. 

carpet latex.  on graves.  sheesh.

Heading off to take my son (and drag my reluctant hubby) to see New Moon at 11 pm.  Got my ear plugs ready for all the screaming teen age girls, LOL.  Hallelujah, its Friday!

Tombstone Texture

You may remember my talking about the home made seam filler I was using here... Before that, I had been using joint compound or wood filler to smooth over the seams on the sides of all those 1/2” pieces of foam to make more substantial tombstones.

Then one day, I ran out of wood filler, (I could never find it in large quantities, and when I had a little bit left in the container, it would dry out before I could use it all) so I mixed some wood glue and sand to make a thick paste and spread it over the seams with a trowel. 

I ended up loving the texture and weight so much that I went and got a tub of carpet latex, and was able to finish off about 20 more stones and hardly make a dent in the latex.  (So a lot cheaper!)

Found this shot last night, and thought I would show you how it ended up looking on Halloween night. 

I wish you could feel it….  I love this.  :)

Staking Tombstones – The Retrofit

I had 15 or so tombstones from last year that I needed to retrofit, to make it through the wind this season.  If you missed it, you can read about the catastrophe Here.

So, as I have talked before, I had already begun making all of this years NEW tombstones by embedding PVC in the center of the stone, then we would just slip over rebar that we embed in the ground.  Totally stolen idea, but its my favorite stolen idea of all time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I made about 20 new ones this year, all with that nifty system.  Then my problem was last years.  And of course, I put that off til September.  It really hurt my brain to think about digging a trench out of perfectly good tombstone backs, already painted, aged, etc, and then tracing out the shape of the stone onto a piece of foam, (some of them are pretty intricate cuts!) and doing another layer.  But that's what I did.

But don’t forget to sand all the edges of the new stone, add more filler of choice to hide the seams, and repaint the back.

Sounds like a pain, and I really thought it was.  But I got through them…. well, almost all of them.  I had to be out of town this weekend, and didnt get the last one done before I left.

Jayson called me this morning, and that ONE snapped in the wind last night.  Right off the base.  Hahahaha!!!

Now I don’t think its such a pain anymore.  I won’t ever, ever, ever complain about the time consuming nature of this process, ever again!  (PS.  I came home tonight, dropped my suitcase at the door, and ran to the garage…. the trench on that ONE has already been dug out, PVC glued in, and the back is glued on, seams are filled.  Paint tomorrow, and it’s back in business!  The complete Retrofit is complete!)

More on “filler of choice” for seams, and my new glue experiment later. 

Not good at prop building and blog writing at the same time!

Wow, I just want to start by sending huge kudos to people like Frog Queen, Captain, Kimily, Grim, GhoulFriday, Dave, Mr. Macabre, Mr. Season of Shadows, and soooo many others, for keeping me entertained daily with such prolific instructional and entertaining blog posts AND being able to build props for haunts at the same time…. man, I’m just so impressed, especially because it is NOT something that I apparently have the ability to do!

Just a quick update – we started September by going to Orlando for a week and never got to leave the Mouse compound – I felt like I was in prison!  Next time I’m actually going to SEE Florida, and maybe work in a way to meet up with one of my haunt favorites, The Captain himself!

Scenes like this were our reality for a week.  Exhausting.

Got back from Florida on Sunday, my dad had emergency surgery on Tuesday, then Jaybo and I came down with the flu on Wednesday.  And that is where we have been for almost a full week now.  Listless, unaware that October is tomorrow.

Enough of the boring stuff…

I have been working on retrofitting last years tombstones… if you are a regular here you might remember that the wind snapped all of my tombstones last year.

  A tombstone base, minus the stone.  Circa 2008.  Brilliant stuff, eh?

After that debacle I started embedding PVC in all of my stones, which will slip over rebar. 

 

As for last years, I had to trace each one onto another layer of foam, then dig out perfectly good painted foam (the back) to make a trench for the pvc to lie in, then glue the new smooth back onto, wood fill the seams, sand, and repaint.  I am still doing that… or will when I can sit for more than an hour without getting the shakes and sweating to death!

 

Speaking of wood filler – did you know that if you run out of wood filler while you are in your pajamas and running 102 fever, you can take wood glue and mix it with sand to make concrete style seam filler?  Works wonders, gives a neat texture, dries hard as a rock, and you don’t even have to go to the store, LMAO.  (Also gives a nice sturdy weight to the stones, which is always cool)

Have a ton of pumpkins (ok, 5) for Jaybo to build bodies for to make static monster guys, and then I think we will finally be in position to get everything in the yard.  

Oh, and finished my Big Lots angel.  I have this way of “ruining” anything store bought, LOL.

Before:

and after:

I’m even corrupting this cute little thing!

Hoping to get everything finished up this week (haha, I am barely making it just typing this) and get it out by Sunday… but then again, this might just be the year of the flu around our house.  So disappointing, but we will work with it!

Today's amateur papier mache tip: Armature…. get the building of the armature right from the beginning…. if the shape is wrong, you will only be making it worse with layers of mache.   (I am always of the mind that “I can just build it up with mache – and end up with STILL boxy shoulders, or a deformed face, etc.  Just build the armature right, use cardboard to build up features, and go from there!

More to come soon… hang in there everyone… this is the time of year we live for!!

P.S. I’m a….

 

Dumb ass. 

In my last post, that is.  I have been corrected. 

Annabel Lee did NOT have a shiatsu massager skull guy thingee-ma-bobber.

The shiatsu was in the make/take before that.

I told you that the mechanical part isn’t of much interest to me… I just want it to magically work!  :)

Apparently, it was technically a blend door actuator.

Could have been a blender, for all I knew.  That’s what Jayson is for.

Sorry about that!

Annabel Lee

No, I didn’t forget that I had a blog, although it seems that way!  I spent a week in Las Vegas, started a new job that takes the word “stress” to a whole new level, and booked a Disney vacation for September with all the stupid dinner reservations that must accompany such an event.  Whew, that was one hella run-on sentence, and pretty much explains my last 6 weeks or so.

Right before I left for Vegas, we attended a Make/Take in Lewisville, Tx where we all decided to make a Shiatsu Grave Popper dude.  Originally a thread from Halloween Forums Prop Builders Group, Dave (DaveInTheGrave) gave step by step instructions for everyone to follow along. 

Jayson, being the mechanically inclined person that he is (thank the stars for that, because I am not) made the grave popper guy, which I’m sure after he sees this post, will update with details.

I on the other hand, could have cared less for tearing up a perfectly good $6 Goodwill massager, and concentrated on a new stone for our lil massager guy. 

Handy graph paper, planning the stone.

Favorite Poem, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.  Had to memorize it in Seventh Grade English, and have loved it ever since. 

Birth and Death date – that of Virginia Eliza Clemm-Poe, his first wife, who I romantically believe the poem is written about.

Carving is done, wood filler texture applied, ready for paint.  Why it looks crooked, I don’t know.

Size: 34”x29”x4”

Seven layers of Teeny Tiny 1/2” Texas Foamboard (UGH!)

This is Annabel Lee.

Side view, before the lettering was “aged”.

 

I’m sure Jayson will be along in the next few days to talk about his skull guy, and whatever else he plans to do with it.  But at least I have my latest work up here now!

How many more days til October 1st?!?!  AAAARGH!

Fonts for Gravestones, Signs, Anything!

I live for fonts.  I collect the obvious creepy fonts, but also the older style fonts, calligraphy, gothic, Irish, just about anything that I think would look good on signs, gravestones, etc.

Here are some of my favorite free fonts…. Links to sites to download the fonts follow the preview.

 

A Charming Font	Abaddon	Creeper
Ardagh	Creepsville	Dracula
A Lolita Scorned	Blood of Dracula	Double Feature
Chiller	Brin Athyn	Feast of Flesh
Bradley Gratis	Insula

 

 

Medusa	Raslani Horrorz	Ale & Wenches
Misfits	Yataghan	Ariosto
Nightmare 5	You Murderer BB	Gabrielle
Scythe	Michaelmas	Paternoster

Then to round out the Free Font extravaganza, there is Chad Savage, who has SinisterFonts.com.  There you will find awesome fonts that he has done, and offers them all for download.  His Readme asks that if you use his fonts, send him your work so that he can see it – just for fun… Imagine the things WE could send him!

There are more than the ones shown above on his site, so make sure and check it out!

 

 

Foam Gravestones – Time to Install…

So, remember a few posts back when I said that I would figure out how to stake them in the yard… later?  Well, at some point, I had the brilliant (sarcasm at its best, right there) idea to glue them on foam platform bases, and then stake the bases to the ground.  Great idea.  ?@?!(*$*&@??

Worked REALLY well in my living room.

Waiting to be put in the yard…No stability issues here… right?

And, they even worked in the yard for a few days….  We used landscape fabric stakes to pierce the foam base, and anchor to the ground.  Sounded like such a great plan.

Then…………………….

Two different bases… sans the grave…  DOH!

Imagine my surprise walking to the mailbox THAT day?!?  (I married a sailor, so you can imagine what spewed outta my mouth)  Luckily, the wind that caused this catastrophe had NOT carried my gravestones away, I think the fence stopped them, heh.

But the good news is…. wow, those bases are ANCHORED to the ground, baby… no stability issues THERE.  (rolls eyes)

So, we had to do emergency surgery, and just like stitches on the battlefield, it wasn’t pretty.  PVC painted to match the particular grave was driven into the base and the ground behind the stone, and Liquid Nailed to the foam.  Ugh. 

I don’t have pictures of the back – frankly, I don’t want to see any of them again.  I think 3 of them got messed up, the rest were fine.  (And it wasn’t even all “high profile” or tall graves… it was just the ones that I guess the Liquid Nails didn’t cure good enough, or get enough contact area… no rhyme or reason)

 

Sigh.  Don’t do what I did.  Embed the PVC in the center, or drill holes for rebar, or make them out of CONCRETE as was intended (kidding).  Just don’t expect Liquid Nails to hold them to bases.  (ok, fine.  You wouldn’t have thought that in the first place, I know.  Just work with me here)  ;)

The “Good to know” part of all this – the landscape stakes kept those bases INTACT.  After inserting them into a foam base, you can paint them to match, and even take them out at the end of the season to store… 

Live and learn.  Or, die and learn, I guess!

Styrofoam Graves – Lettering

Continuing the series Graves – the following steps are done after the basic shape is cut, sanded, and prepped.

1.  Who and what:  There are a few sites on the internet that give you Names and/or Epitaphs.  For my first round, I relied on Haunters Hangout for ideas.  After a few, I wanted to make mine different, so I started using my kids names (they became neighborhood stars) then characters from movies that scared me most.  Regan MacNeil scared me the most – Linda Blair in the Exorcist.  Also, find an English to Latin translator via Google.  I looked up Dead by Dawn (I’m Dawn… get it?!!) and this was what I got  Mortuus per Dilucuolo.  I loved telling people what it meant when they asked.

2.  Fonts/lettering.  You can print out your names, dates, epitaph in any creepy or calligraphy font you wish.  If your printer runs out, and you spent the entire 90s decade scrapbooking, (or otherwise have REAL talent) then you can freehand it, such as I did on ol’ Regan up there.  Printed computer fonts work much better, but anything can work in a pinch.

7.  Get it on the foam.  Transfer letters to foam in same manner as was done with the transferring of the shape.    (Carving the outline of the letters - this is also seen in the picture above)  Make sure that you cut out the inside of letters like o, p, d, b, etc. so that they don’t get lost when cutting out the outer edges.

8.  My favorite part.  Carve the inside of the lettering with either an Exacto blade (making angels to simulate cut marble) or a Dremel. 

This was done with the Exacto blade

I don’t have a pic with the Dremel’d letters, but it is a lot smoother inside.  (It didn't really make a difference to me how it looked – Xacto vs Dremel, because once you paint it, the side by side comparison looked about the same… but the Dremel just went so much faster for me personally… and its fun!

*Note.  I didn’t follow everyone’s SMART advice, and did not wear a mask.  I had just finished Dremeling out my third grave in a row (I work in assembly line style) and literally got sick from inhaling all of the pink dust, so if yakking in the driveway is not your style, either wear a mask, or don’t do a monster carving marathon. 

9.  If you have any additional pieces to glue on (such as the wood cross in the picture at the top of this post) then go ahead and do it now, so it can be drying with the paint in the next step.

9.  Paint lettering black.   (Or dark contrast color of your choice) I used a brush, and didn’t worry to much about going outside the edges, but try not to go overboard on the flat surface, or it will be harder to cover. 

10.  Painting remaining surface.  I used a small paint roller and painted the grave gray, or white… if you roll lightly over the lettering, it wont get into the letter grooves, but I still had to touch up most lettering a bit after the roller. 

11.  Marble anyone?  If you want to marble at this point, take a sea sponge, kitchen sponge, wadded up saran wrap, anything (Honey, stay out of my kitchen towel drawer!!!) and sponge on any contrasting color you like.  If you don’t like the way it looks, roller over it with your solid color and start again… just make sure you sponge when the paint is “fairly” wet, so it will blend in better.  If the base coat is TOO wet, or has a lot of paint, it will not come out either, because it will just blend ALL THE WAY in. 

12. Texture?  Throw some sand (err, I had corn meal in abundance, and that worked fine too) onto the grave, then paint over.  Or be lazy like me and just sprinkle it in your roller tray with the paint ;)   Or you can also use Monster mud and spread it on like icing which just reminded me why I did this – the back of this one was white beaded styrofoam, and showed every dimple.  I did this to cover that up.

11.  Weathering/Aging.  I really only used the paint brush to do my aging this year, but this year I expect to be experimenting with the water bottle and woodburner, things like that.  I just used black and green paints, dry brushed in a sweeping motion from top down, and then on the sides.  I also drug the paint brush down from letters.    

  

For some excellent info on weathering/aging here are a few of my favorites:

Spooky Blue - Amazing results

Keeba's (Awesome techniques)

Wolfstone - More interesting techniques

Blackstone - beautiful graves

 

And later – the only arena that I can excel in over other Bloggers – the “what not to do to your graves” category.  Stay tuned for a good laugh… or if you are me, a good cry   ;)

Styrofoam Graves – Basic Cutting and Shaping Foam

There are a million ways to do these, but once you get started, be careful… it can easily become an addiction, and before you know it you will have to rent space in your neighbors yard in October of every year.

Here’s my method, including some “Not To Do’s” that I learned this year – just for scientific purposes, of course… for sharing with the world!  (And NOT because I’m an idiot… Noooo, of course not)

*Note:  This info is provided from a perspective of someone who buys materials in the South, where the thicker sheets of insulation cannot be found.. therefore, we have to double our work in order to get a realistic thickness.  I am dealing with 1/2” thickness of foam here – so if you live in the North, skip all the doubling.  Just cut your 2” sheet, and be thankful for your winters.  :D

1.  Sketch your idea for the shape.  I do this on graph paper, which helps me keep dimensions in proper ratio.  I also use a yard stick, and various objects such as butter bowls, or square Glue jugs for different shaped corners.  If you are just starting out, and don’t want to freehand it, HERE are some great templates from Hedstorm.net.

2. Gather materials. 

• Styrofoam insulation sheets – the pink or the blue kind.  An 8’x4' sheet runs for about $9.50 here.
• Cutting method of choice – either a long serrated bread knife, box cutter, or The Wonder Cutter, as you prefer.  I use the box cutter for long straight cuts, then the WC for the detailed work.
• Note on Wonder Cutter – I had the battery operated one, and I didn't care for it – then I bought the AC Powered version, and WOW, what a difference in cutting, as well as the straight “pin” style made it really easy to navigate any detailed cuts.
• Liquid Nails – to glue second thickness to the front panel
• Monster Mud or just plain Joint Compound
• Fine grit sandpaper

3.  Transfer your design to the Styrofoam.  I tape several sheets of computer paper (8 1/2x11) together to form a big piece of paper the size of my grave, draw the shape I want on it, then attach to Styrofoam to the foam with tacks to reduce slippage, and “cut out” the shape with an Xacto, leaving an indented guide for where to cut.  If you have a more basic shape, you can just take a box cutter and cut the whole thing out in this step.

4.  Cut out shape with your choice of tool.  If you use a wonder cutter, try to hold it as still as you can down the straight line, or you will get jaggies.

5.  Repeat step 3 and 4 to create the back piece – just for realistic thickness.  Then line the two pieces together, and glue with Liquid Nails.  Try to get good coverage on the edges, so there won’t be a big gap.   I then set heavy things on top to dry, or even clamp, if you have clamps that won’t cut into the foam. 

I had to clamp the ends on the top picture.. they were very skinny points, and didn’t have enough surface area to put enough LN to hold it together.  On the bottom picture, I am using paint cans as weights.  I used scrap foam in between the grave and the can, in case the metal lip of the can dented the foam.

6.  Once that has dried, I used joint compound or Monster Mud if I had some already made, to smooth down the seam on all sides of the grave.  This is where I found out how annoying the jaggies from the wonder cutter are… once the MM dries, sand it with fine grit sand paper to get it as smooth as possible, without making the seam obvious again.    On this one, I went a little nuts and applied Monster Mud over the entire back of this thing, for a stone texture.  Probably won’t do this again for graves, because I didn’t want to mess with the front – keeping it out of the lettering, but its a cool technique.

Once you are happy with the smoothness of the edges, there is no visible seam, and everything is dry, you are ready for carving your lettering and details.

**Note, it is at this step that most people will drill pilot holes in the bottom of the graves, to place the grave over rebar, which is pounded into the ground.  This is where my NOT TO DO comes in.  We didn’t do these holes at this point because A) We don’t own a drill bit even close to being that long, and the $100 or something cost of the bit just freaked me out, and B) I couldn’t figure out how to go up the middle, when the middle of these thin little dudes was a line of Liquid Nails.  So I carried on, with no plan, figuring I would figure it out later.

For someone with better plans that that, go visit The HowloweenQueen for MUCH better instructions… or there’s also Aidtopia – Halloween, which shows us the embedded PVC pipe method.

Next installment…. Lettering and Detail.