Tombstones

Two years ago was my first Halloween in my house.  I love Halloween because of the chance to be someone you're not...in costume that is.  I like being scared just a little.  And I just really love pumpkins.  It may have something to do with being an October baby.  I only had one birthday party that was Halloween themed.  But Halloween has definitely grown on me more.  I think I'm just usually bright and happy and pink...it's fun to be dark and not so totally scary that one month of the year...that I let spill into two...or three...and even four a little bit.

Well since I had my house I wanted to decorate for Halloween.  Tombstones were a big debate for me.  I think graveyards are cool and creepy, but I live in a very religiously oriented town, and Halloween isn't the most celebrated.  The churches have fall festivals to discourage going door to door and begging for candy.  I decided I didn't care that much and I was going to make my own tombstones, however cursed I may be.

 
Supplies:

- 1 - 4'x8' sheet of 1/4 inch plywood

- Jig Saw

- Spray paint - lots of spray paint - solid colors and "stone look"

- 1/4" by 1" stakes

- Nail gun

- Wood glue

- Black Craft paint and craft paint brush

- Outdoor spray polyurethane

The first step was to draw out some tombstones.  I guess a pencil is required too.  But I just found some pictures online and tried to draw them out as best I could.  I got 9 tombstones out of my sheet of plywood.

I used my jig saw to cut them all out.  Quarter inch plywood is super easy to cut with a jig saw, so even though there were a lot of shapes and cuts, it was still really quick.

I was going to paint them outside, good thing to do with spray paint, so I bought really cheap tablecloths and tape the stapled them to my fence and then leaned the tombstones against the fence.

I did a base coat of a few different colors.  I had gray, brown, and black paint.  I used probably about 12 cans of spray paint in the end, so this is where this project can get really expensive really fast.

The final coat was the "stone look" spray paint.  This looks really really cool, but unfortunately it's not really meant for outdoors.  This would be why my tombstones don't look quite so good anymore.

The sayings on the tombstones are just painted on with craft paint.  I didn't come up with them on my own.  I found some online like "Ben Better" and "Myra Mains."  Some of the longer sayings my friend had come up with for me.  "Poetry," no matter how strange is not my forte.  

I used my nail gun and some wood glue to attach the 1/4" stakes to the backs of the tombstones.  I cut the bottoms of each stake to a point with my miter saw.  I have really, really dry ground, so I had to make some little mud puddles before I could use a rubber mallet to hammer each one into the ground.  the posts are about 4 to 6 inches long past the tombstones depending on their size.

This was my graveyard in 2010.  After it was all up I ended up spraying the backs of the tombstones with some black spray paint to protect it.  I also sprayed on a coat of outdoor polyurethane to protect the non-outdoor friendly stone look paint as well as the craft paint words. 

Here is the graveyard a year later in 2011.  I spread it out across my lawn a bit more.  You can also tell the drought that we had last year with my very brown lawn instead of green.  Though dead grass much more fitting for a graveyard.

I haven't decided the fate of the tombstones this year.  They are all piled up in my garage under my giant spider, but they are definitely a bit sad looking...they may get a refresher...or a replacement...